Of States, Rights, and Social Closure (PDF)

Oliver Schmidtke is Professor of Political Science at the University of Victoria. Saime Ozcurumez is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the McGill Institute.

Financial Times Book of the Year: "Abrilliant study of scientific fraud."

Plastic Fantastic offers a compelling, timely and well-written dissection of our era s most outrageous scientific fraud, and of what it means for science today." - American Scientist Magazine

"Reich's account is meticulously researched, based on interviews with over 120 scientists, friends and editors. It is gripping stuff: a surprising page-turner that is well worth reading." - New Scientist

" . . .a wonderful piece of forensic writing." - Financial Times

"Reich pursues this affair in depth . . .does an excellent job of dealing with the facts of the Schön case" - Martin Blume, Nature

"Reich s readable account of a fairly recent ­science fraud, is valuable chiefly as a close look at the "kitchen" where scientific results are assembled and validated - and whence occasionally comes forth ­something that should not have seen the light of day." - John Derbyshire, The Wall Street Journal

"Eugenie Samuel Reich offers an inside look into how the scientific establishment deals with human imperfection. Plastic Fantastic is a transfixing cautionary tale of how easily wrongdoers can hide and thrive in modern science." - Jörg Blech, author of Inventing Disease and Pushing Pills

"In a warts 'n all expose of the scientific process, Eugenie Reich investigates the world's greatest scientific fraud. Fascinating, startling and highly readable. If you thought science was as pure as the driven snow, prepare to be shocked." - Justin Mullins, consultant editor, New Scientist

"A riveting tale of scientific detective work, and a story about an important issue in science that is often overlooked. A well researched page-turner." - Amir Aczel, author of Fermat s Last Theorem