How to lose a Ph.D in 127 pages

It's May 2002, and Bell Labs is being asked why one of their researchers was caught duplicating graphs. It's the end of the road, but there's still a few twists left in store. This is the demise of Jan Hendrik Schön. Part 3 of 3.
Part 1: • The man who almost fak...
Part 2: • Suspicions are swirlin...
My twitter : / bobbybroccole
My Patreon: / bobbybroccoli
0:00 Chapter 13 - Property of Lucent Technologies
5:42 Chapter 14 - Into the Void
15:39 Chapter 15 - [RETRACTED]
21:16 Chapter 16 - Extraordinarily Difficult Questions
28:20 Chapter 17 - Collateral Damage
The Bell Labs Report: media-bell-labs-com.s3.amazon...

[@Kuroiikawa]

Very bold of Bobby to assume that we don't want another 18 hours of documentary going over the 9 people with even more retracted papers.

[@thursdaeaddams]

I very much want this!

[@Ikxi]

YES

[@joost0133]

Maybe he made that video but retracted it?

[@khanhtran8772]

​@@joost0133 someone is doing internal investigation on his videos

[@rileybanks1191]

in fairness, going down the list and doing a quick google, most of those stories are far less interesting. instead of "massive breakthrough faked," it's much smaller lies over a much longer period of time.

[@phoenixh5696]

“I’m assuming you don’t have another 18 hours to spend,” sir, with how good this video was, you can make it 36 hours and I will gladly watch them

[@arielapolo9250]

I also have another 18hrs to spare

[@namer4059]

How about the amount of hours it would have taken to test all those transistors?

[@TahtahmesDiary]

Same, I would gladly spend another few days learning more about all this 🥰

[@mjsvitek]

I also have 18 hours to spare! I need to know more!!!

[@thelocalnecromancer1224]

I have 18 hours to spare too.

[@agushernandezquiroga9064]

"I have proof of the existence of organic semiconductors, but this hard drive is too small to contain it"

[@masicbemester]

Fermat's Last Semiconductor

[@marys.9367]

Hendrik just loved Bell Labs so much he wanted to honour it with all the bell curves he made up :)

[@clopec]

Bobby failed to mention the Bell curve as one of the most influential inventions of the Bell labs.

[@ninizeldav7174]

What a Bell end

[@OctagonalSquare]

@@clopecI thought it was called that because it is roughly shaped like a bell

[@clopec]

@@OctagonalSquare, you are absolutely correct about that.

[@newgenderplus]

hows it feel to have independantly produced the best feature length documentary of 2020

[@BobbyBroccoli]

Doesn't feel real tbh

[@a52productions]

I love your username btw!! It's really clever

[@maxgreineder9867]

@@BobbyBroccoli i think the dorktown seattle mariners series gives you a serious run for you money :)

[@maxgreineder9867]

but tbh, i think urs might be better

[@BobbyBroccoli]

@@maxgreineder9867 thank you! I owe a lot of inspiration to that

[@emilyrln]

The part of this scandal that makes me saddest is the negative impact it had on people pursuing their degrees and postgraduate studies.

[@almostclintnewton8478]

Right? Hearing about their experiences was so depressing, all those students deserved better

[@jmgajda8071]

A similar incident occurred with Elizabeth B. Goodwin, Ph.D. in Biochemistry. I believe 3 students in her lab left the field for good because of the scandal.

[@emilyrln]

@@jmgajda8071 Ugh, that's horrible! We need some kind of restitution process for students and other people in subordinate positions who are affected by a superior's misconduct. It's so unfair that they get dragged down through no fault of their own.

[@rangersmyth]

In psychology, it is meant to be about 30% of the publications are fabracated and false, hence I now believe there is a 30% gap in the knowledge, which can be filled with new names, there is so much to really discover so to bring a light side to this, gives many scientists in many fields an oppertunity to really find something!

[@Lishadra]

It’s always the innocent people who get taken down with the fraudster that make me the saddest

[@razzercise]

Would like to say, this video series, and your other scandal ones, has permanently changed how I make my lab write-ups. I'm a beginner chemistry student, so nothing I'm making is high stakes, but every time I find myself with odd numbers that don't feel right or data sets that could be better, I always remind myself to not change what I have, and instead just write about it in my discussion sections. In the back of my mind, my brain tells me I'd be just like Schön if I faked my data or made it up for it to look better on a report. Even though it doesn't matter much now, I feel like it's still a very good habit to have, especially later.

[@chielvoswijk9482]

That will serve you well. To be open about such things actually provides credibility as it shows you understand the importance of scientific conduct. If you face an anomaly. You either take the fight head-on with it and try to eliminate it via repeated tests, try to explain it properly or potentially even both by using an experiment to explain it. You are likely to get tested on this kind of stuff when you near graduation. So keep at it and you will find at least one barrier to graduation to be a lot easier.

[@evoluxman9935]

Same for me as well. I have just started working for my master's thesis, and I come back to these videos from time to time, serves as a good reminder of how important "scientific honesty" is. Sort of a memento mori, one might say.

[@NoriMori1992]

Good job. Proud of you.

[@mcspud]

This just serves you well in life in general. Never fake it to match the model or "how it should be". The world has little black-and-white, just various shades of nuanced gray.

[@samuelcheung4799]

Serve truth and justice, and justice will reward you.

[@TheLupusYonderboy]

This is an impressive analysis, I used your videos as a reference for an Ethics paper in my PhD, with the proper citation of course. Keep up the good work!

[@mitlanderson]

What was your thesis? And your field of study? Interested as a current undergrad.

[@Alphoric]

I really hope you didn’t cheat your phd the irony would be insane if you did

[@jishnuviswanath]

Can't be plagiarism if source is audio/video, right?

[@juniperrodley9843]

@@jishnuviswanath Can't be plagiarism if you cite your source lmfao

[@randomnpc7773]

@@juniperrodley9843 Not wrong LMAO

[@donmon2001]

Good job! It is very complex and I am impressed with you assembled essentially all the highlights into a single thread. It was also refreshing to hear the reaction to some of the "results" punctuated with the expletives that we were not able to express at the time.

[@thesleepydot]

Yo are you the actual Don Monroe?? I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, and say it's pretty awesome to see your reaction to this video! And i agree

[@135791max]

@@thesleepydot Considering the account is 11 years old, I think it's reasonable to believe that this man is the real deal. Very cool.

[@Nehpets94]

@@thesleepydot 1:39

[@OMEGA-362]

it's not everyday part of the video comments, very cool.

[@fighterck6241]

It's nice to show the world how the scientific community can effectively police itself with civility. And you were a part of that. Amazing to see your comment here!

[@keesalemon]

My jaw dropped when I saw Don Monroe come up for his interview! You went out of your way to make such an excellent documentary including interviews with the relevant players! Fantastic!

[@videitos09]

I googled Don Monroe and... A surprised to be sure, but a welcome one.

[@avawetzel3408]

thank you SO much for including captions on all of these!!!! i struggle with auditory processing issues, and i love watching long videos. however, because long videos are, well, long, most creators don't bother to caption them. sometimes i can spend twice the length of a video watching it because i have to keep going back and figure out what was said. i didn't have to do that once in any of these three videos, and it's really truly incredible

[@mariecarie1]

Saaaame! I have ADHD, so just listening can be hard for me. Being able to read along and listen helped me hang in there

[@99mores]

also helpful to foreigners who doesnt speak english fluently

[@JoeyCarb]

YES 💯

[@montananerd8244]

Yessssss!

[@renofthewind]

same!!! whenever creators take the time to add written captions for their videos (which is not often) it makes me want to kiss them on the mouth

[@trnguy6137]

This was heartbreaking. I could see how science died for those students.

[@kecko3294]

Just wanted to say that I really really liked the visualization of the whole documentary. Never seen anything in this style and it was really cool to see all the information constantly added to one whole big picture!

[@mdu02]

Jon Bois makes lots of videos in this style, although baseball and football are a bit different of a topic from scientific fraud.

[@itiscujo]

@@mdu02 The first thing I thought when I saw this was huh, someone's a Jon Bois fan

[@nabicx]

looks like alt shift x

[@sebastianol593]

@@itiscujo in part 2, I think he referenced The Bob Problem in sports haha

[@wallywutsizface6346]

Check out Secret Base. I’m not even that big of a baseball fan but the way he presents is so engaging. Check out his 3 part mariners history

[@calamityoblivion301]

Dang it. I was hoping for a step-by-step tutorial on how I can lose a Ph.D and not someone else's story on losing one.

[@brendawilliams8062]

I am happy not to have the worry about one myself also. Lol

[@screwyourhandle]

I got a PhD 8 years ago after having a few too many drinks and now I can't seem to get rid of the damn thing

[@brendawilliams8062]

@@screwyourhandle there was a song back in time called “ free bird”.

[@5kamon]

@@screwyourhandle don't worry, after 8 years it's already expired

[@K-MasterGirl]

Well you can just do what he did

[@trunkit8749]

I love how you kept everything in the same place after writing it. Making things appear when they’re relevant, and never going away. Things grouping into connected groups, but never specifically stated. I love that.

[@Aigis31]

I was bored, surfing youtube, and came across this series. This is one of the best documentaries I have EVER seen. The graphics are clear, concise, and smooth, and there's even subtitles for people like me, who are hard of hearing! Thank you for all the effort you put into this. It was a phenomenal watch.

[@schnick2589]

I am so glad yt recommended the first part of this to me. This is an incredibly well made and educational docu series. Thanks so much for making it

[@uschurch]

Without the music it would be much better. Too loud, obnoxious, adding zero value.

[@schnick2589]

@@uschurch I think the music fucked hard

[@Sunneyred]

@@schnick2589 hell yeah this was a journey I'm happy KZbin sent me, wish it was sooner! And the music slapped

[@MrWhangdoodles]

Me too. Went through all of the videos.

[@arielapolo9250]

IKR

[@BobbyBroccoli]

Hello! Thank you for making it all the way to the end of this series! The big reason this series did so well is people shared it with friends on twitter and reddit, and I'd really appreciate it if you did that for this one too. My next project is going to be a tutorial video on how to make the Google Earth animations!

[@noahway13]

I have no technical idea what this was about but intriguing enough that I watched the whole thing.

[@noahway13]

I wish you would have at least tried to interview JHS or gave more current info. If he is still in science, I would argue that HE was the one who least suffered from this incident, considering his role. Also, theoretically, if he were allowed to keep his doctorate, would anyone even hire him for science? In this era of hysterical cancel culture, I can't believe he'd be employed.

[@BobbyBroccoli]

@@noahway13 A. I did reach out to him. Unsurprisingly, he did not want to speak to an amateur youtuber making a documentary highly critical of him for something that happened 20 years ago. B. All current info I could find is what is in this video.

[@NuclearSavety]

Well, when making one point of critisism, it would be the discussion about the impact of the fraud onto the maybe 1000s of grad / PhD students worldwide. The examples you bring are basically the survivours because these are the ones you still can find. This gives the impression that it was not so bad after all, basically "a crime without victims". However, the selection of people likely is strongly affected by the survivorship bias. I cant imagine that no grad student, which were burned in the race to confirm JHS results, came off so good .... Of course quantifying the survivour bias is hard ....

[@DutchObserver]

Just binge watched all three parts, even though I had other plans for my day. This was a very interesting documentairy indeed, brought to us in an understandable, enjoyable and easy to follow way. I'm definitely going to check out what else you have to offer on your channel. In other words: you've earned yourself another subscriber.

[@Brusselpicker]

I too volunteer to sit through 18 hours of content about scientific paper retraction, I would dearly love a story on the scientist that had most retracted. This documentary has been an absolute joy to watch. You should be very proud of it.

[@hope7317]

when i first started watching this series, i was like “wow!! the animation style reminds me a lot of jon bois in 17776!” and with great pleasure stopped multitasking to watch the visuals on screen. it is very satisfying to know i wasn’t wrong. i can’t imagine this being explained in any other way… it really helps comprehend just the timeline and level and absurdity of this

[@tacticalyugo5357]

So, what is it like in the future?

[@edgarallenhoe3518]

​@@tacticalyugo5357lonely, with a lot of football

[@frightenedsoul]

@@tacticalyugo5357superconductors run the world

[@richfiles]

Oh, trust me, I _do_ have 18 hours to spare, so _please_ cover even more! Switching from game reviews to documentaries definitely earned a sub from me! I like to listen to these kinds of long format documentaries while working, and there's only so many people producing content of this caliber. Keep it up!

[@u.v.s.5583]

I will rewatch the big bang theory where Kripke calls Cooper the Wetwactor.

[@axllow3914]

I was gonna comment the exact same thing, I NEED MORE PLEASE

[@s7d788]

The website retraction watch is great academic "gossip" and has a compilation of articles about the authors the most retracted papers, many of which had issues of misconduct or fraud. Worth a read

[@rin_etoware_2989]

i read through Retraction Watch, i think the three big reasons for retraction there were - falsifying data, like what Schön did - making a really big mistake in your research that people only found out much later, when your paper has already been used for a lot of other studies - people faking peer reviews by inventing sock puppet scientists-these ones would usually involve a dozen, a hundred people, maybe more, but usually there's two or three people up top that would benefit from it the most

[@ENBYSS]

On a re-read, I noticed Yoshitaka Fujii as the #1 retracted author, with a 73 paper lead over #2 - almost double. I had to look this up and found two extremely ridiculous points. First was that he started publishing false data at 1993. This was only caught *20 years later* in an official investigation. To add, 212 out of 249 papers credited to Fujii were investigated. Only 3 were valid. The others were either partially fabricated, completely fabricated, or unverifiable. Hell, some co-authors were surprised they were in some of these papers. Two even said the guy _falsified their signatures._ It's just. Magnificent how ridiculous the field can truly be.

[@BobbyBroccoli]

If I ever get around to it you'll get a research credit

[@ENBYSS]

@@BobbyBroccoli Thanks! tho to be fair the research I've done is mostly a cursory glance at his Wikipedia page, heh

[@BobbyBroccoli]

@@ENBYSS That's how I get my video ideas though so it's not a bad start!

[@ENBYSS]

@@BobbyBroccoli Very fair point!

[@Ralleigh]

@@BobbyBroccoli I'd love to see a video on that guy.

[@andrearoberts1953]

My father once told me, "If a person who's an expert can't explain something so you can understand, that person is not a expert". I'm not a science person yet I was able to follow along. These videos were so well done I watched them back-to-back even though I should have gone to bed. 😊 It's stories like this that probably make so many people distrust science nowadays. Thanks so much for all the obvious time and effort you put into producing this video.

[@sharrpshooter1]

I mean explaining something to someone whose not an expert is usually just about how much time you have. And most peoples distrust in science is due to charismatic morons who never passed 8th grade science, convincing others who failed most highschool science classes. Its more of a cycle of morons following other morons

[@maartjerozemarijn3204]

I don't do science, I am bad at anything science (heck I am a political/language student), but this 3 part doc was truly incredible and interesting. I was shocked to see my university has publicly access to 17 pieces of his work for all students to use, WITHOUT any warning. I have contacted the librarians on this, as I can imagine students might use it for their dissertations or other research! I am fascinated. If anyone has tips on topics like this that are interesting to non-science people, let me know!

[@blazelutari8675]

Can I ask how you contacted your librarians and what you said? I've noticed that my university ALSO has access to multiple papers of his that were featured here, but it's through journal subscriptions - I'm not sure who to raise this to or what to say. I would be OK with them remaining up for posterity, but there's NO mention of the scandal and that's the part that concerns me..

[@stttttipa]

​@@blazelutari8675 as a librarian who had experience in a higher learning institution (polytechnic college), there is not much we can do in certain cases. Access to journals - it is in journals jurisdiction. We can only point to papers we know for certain to be faked or plagiarized. If we notice them. Nowadays it is nearly impossible to comb through tons of papers without journals clearly pointing towards shady or problematic papers, something they never do.

[@stttttipa]

That is why mentorships exists. Us librarians are very limited when it comes to time to comb through everything all the time, unfortunately.

[@sharrpshooter1]

No one doing a dissertation in this field would use these papers without already knowing at least some background into this field, and even if they did, in the first draft their PI would instantly tell them not to use that publication and why

[@ThePlayingField]

Didn't expect to tear up close to the end, but the stories about all those scientists getting frustrating or despondent are heartbreaking. Beautiful work, Kevan. Seriously.

[@BobbyBroccoli]

If you don't get emotional whiplash going from chapter 15 to 17 I didn't do my job correctly

[@VeteranVandal]

And what else would they do? They see a guy publishing like each week and you can't make your equipment work correctly or measure what you want to measure, how would you feel? Like a person with significance, or like somebody that's probably not competent enough at what they're doing? That's the thing. The ones that simply admitted defeat and changed lanes survived. The others are crushed by themselves. By their own standards. They ask "how can this guy be so much better than me?" And when they fail to find the answer (because it was a complicated situation you'd not find the correct answer, aka, guy was faking all of his shit), and people keep telling you that you should simply try harder - because, trust me, that's the first and sometimes only thing, they'll tell you -, you eventually get out of the academic world because you were trying your hardest, until you break everything you are. People will compare and give the job to fraudster/shady dude 100% of the time, until they prove him wrong or a fraud. By the way, changing lanes isn't always a possibility either. If you hit a deadend and fail to see it as such or deviate from it in time, you are fucked. You'll have a very difficult time to continue. If your supervisor doesn't have that talk with you (and some won't) your ass will be hanging in the end, but they'll have a job and you won't. Those with experience should be responsible for making sure their surpervised staff survive afterwards or have any perspective, but aren't always either held to any standard or are defended from any repercussions, as this minidoc series tell you.

[@wecare838]

@@BobbyBroccoli Hey fantastic series. I hope you'll do more such scientific misconduct videos in future, particularly from the "hard sciences" i.e physics chemistry math etc.

[@MrBeiragua]

It hit me strong. I still think a paper I studied for a year on grad school was fake.

[@VeteranVandal]

@@MrBeiragua I studied a few papers I really think were not fit for publishing.

[@conerdfrederickson9893]

Really amazing series, I actually got a PhD in the organic semiconductor field in the mid 2010's although I was on the synthetic and computational chemistry side not the device physics side. I don't think I had ever heard about this guys work, but the second you said that he had a pentacene device that was as good as silicone it would be obvious his stuff was fake to anyone in the field now. One of the major issues that people have been working on since his time was the fact that the mobilities in organic semiconductors are much lower than polycrystalline silicone let alone single crystalline. Its funny that your list of the possible benefits of organic electronics could have come practically verbatim from one of my early papers.

[@joshhoover1202]

I was sort of wondering while watching this how important the crystal structure is vs having conjugate pi systems. (I am going to Google this anyway.) I hadn't really even realized that organic semiconductors were/are such a hot topic.

[@conerdfrederickson9893]

@@joshhoover1202 It is pretty necessary to not only have an extended system of pi conjugation and good geometric overlap in the crystal structure but the molecular orbitals also need to overlap well in whatever crystal structure you end up with. Designing materials with the correct crystal structure is one of the big difficulties in the field when I was involved. While there are some general things that we know about how to design materials to produce a desired crystal structures, the exact crystal structure of a molecule is one of the things we don't have a good way to predict yet. Compared to many of the electronic properties of a molecule that we can use quantum chemical calculations to predict, the packing of molecules in the solid state is a much trickier beast to tackle.

[@mitlanderson]

@@conerdfrederickson9893 as a comp sci/cog sci undergrad with an unhealthy obsession with semiconductors I lament my school not having a program in the field. I make do just reading papers in the field currently.

[@vilichtsarina2991]

Not really a commenter and chances are noone will ever see this but I just have to express the admiration I have for this channel. So nicely animated an narrated and the research is astonishing. Thank you for doing what you do!

[@pemdii]

it makes me sad that this whole thing was a big factor for whether aspiring scientists stayed in science or didn't. I'm absolutely fascinated by all the things science, even the mundane, and it's depressing to see others lose that spark

[@MYG]

This must have taken years to make. It was such an interesting watch, and the editing was phenomenal. Honestly seeing someone other than Jon Bois make this style of content makes me want to make a doc like this sometime in the future. I guess I better start learning to use google earth. Maybe I'll do it on one of the scientists on that list that you didn't have the time to talk about. Anyway, Kevan, thank you so much for making this work of art!

[@couchman-sw6jy]

The thumbnail caught my attention and I was hooked from the first couple minutes of part 1, and I watched all the parts back to back. Thank you for the countless hours and immeasurable amount of effort you put into all this. This should be shown to all phd students and researchers before they enter the field 😊

[@thecactuscat01]

My only question is if he didn’t understand science on such a fundamental level, why would you go into science? Like good god, the man *literally didn’t understand the point of the scientific method.* He seems like he would’ve enjoyed being a mathematician, why didn’t he go into that? His mindset even fits.

[@williamrutherford553]

The bit about "reputation" is interesting, especially in regards to the fact that his co-authors aren't the ones who felt the consequences. His reputation by far took the biggest hit. His co-authors were working with him, so they likely had a greater or equal reputation, which was mostly upheld. It was those who tried to build their reputation off of his work who lost out, because they ended up right back where they started. Like one testimonial said, you can never get that time back, and that was time that would've otherwise been spent building their reputation from zero.

[@weyrcat]

You have a HUGE mistake in this episode... you claim we don't have 18 hours to go through the Other "most retracted authors". Yes we do. @Netflix needs to option you for a series.

[@melaniey.5596]

You know, Dr. Don Monroe seems like a pretty cool person. I really respect how clear headed he still is about the whole thing (no malice against Hendrik) and how he was kind enough to give his imput in this video. I also think that PhD shouldn’t get retroactively taken of the way they got them was legitimate, but I can see that there is also a legitimate reason to take it away, considering that Hendrik used that PhD to lie.

[@careneh33]

The PhD title is meant to "prove" that someone is able and willing to abide by some minimal standards when conducting research. Importantly, it comes with the expectation and understanding that the title holder knows and will abide by some basic ethics of science, also because they represent science to the general public. JH Schön has clearly and consistently shown that he was not able or willing to do this (even if there was a time where he was, previously).

[@TheBaldr]

Because there scientists out there that knowingly fake data and get away with it all the time or if caught just a slap on the wrist. I know two research psychologists at Iowa state and Ohio state that fake data intentionally and get paid a lot of money by organizations so they can spread it as part of their propaganda.

[@careneh33]

@@TheBaldr then go ahead and blow the whistle!

[@HammedBeans]

Throughout the whole story... the only thing i could think of was that don is the MVP of the whole thing... such an awesome dude.

[@ericv00]

A degree is an endorsement of quality from an institution. If an institution no longer wishes to endorse someone for quality, I see no reason why they shouldn't be able to retract their endorsement. If a mechanic does a good job on my car, then I send a bunch of friends to them, then the mechanic swindles my friends, I have every right and reason to stop endorsing the mechanic's work.

[@inerkatakan8161]

i, in fact, DO have 18 hours (and more) reserved solely to watch a video about the other nine most retracted scientists

[@ChrisHoopes1]

Man said “trust me bro” and almost won a Nobel Prize.

[@Entropic_Alloy]

My own PhD advisor told us about this story, and how wild it was. Glad to see a full and well researched series on it!

[@Anonymous-ph5nl]

Bobby made an entire documentary on a guy I have never heard of and upon randomly stumbling upon it I now know his entire career of fraud and have gained more knowledge on circuits than I got from a summer class with ASU. This 3-part series rivals my favorite commentaries from sources that I listen to all the time. This documentary is 3x better than anything I have ever seen from National Geographic. BobbyBroccoli, you have earned my subscription. You have become, in the last 2 hours, a favorite channel of mine. I can't wait to see what else you've made.

[@lilyblossom2]

damn. i’ve recently learnt calculus and the second derivative test, but i never thought i would see what i’ve learnt applied in real life. seeing this video makes me so glad that what im learning is useful, even if i wont ever go into stem.

[@spehropefhany]

It would be pretty easy to add a ton of noise to the second derivative and then integrate it back into the fake results.

[@mikkor.860]

@@spehropefhanyFrom what the video was saying, I’m pretty sure it was the investigators doing the second derivative test, not hendrik

[@fid_hivemindscape]

Absolutely amazing video essays dude. Visually pleasing and quality 3d models + easy going but obviously educated narration. You know how to present a ton of information without making it overwhelming. I discovered your channel at the right time, content of this exact sort does a good job of distracting me from grief, thank you

[@BobbyBroccoli]

Thank you! Hope you're doing okay

[@hide_on__bush]

What a fantastic documentary. I didn't think I could stay interested for so long, but before I knew it the video was over! The visuals were clear, interesting, engaging, and always felt like they contributed to the topics at hand. The script felt very cohesive and was not cumbersome at all (coming from someone who doesn't deal much with circuitry or electrical-based physics), unlike a lot of other documentaries where they spend too much time on explaining absolutely everything. This also ties into how you speak the words- there was never a dull moment where I felt like you weren't interested in the topic, as if you were phoning in a voice over for a payday or something; the interest and enthusiasm in your tone kept me as an audience member engaged, despite not initially caring at all for what you were talking about. Of course over time I grew more and more interested in what you had to say content-wise, but even if i hadn't, I probably would have stuck around just to admire the depth of your knowledge and commitment to showing it to a wider audience. TL;DR: this is one of the best videos/series i've ever watched, period.

[@BobbyBroccoli]

Thanks so much! Where did you find it btw? I'm getting a mysterious surge in views.

[@hide_on__bush]

@@BobbyBroccoli Saw it on reddit, specifically the mealtimevideos subreddit! www.reddit.com/r/mealtimevideos/comments/jr3gbr/3631_how_to_lose_a_phd_in_127_pages/?ref=share&ref_source=link

[@BobbyBroccoli]

Ah there we go, makes sense. Reddit has been an amazing help getting attention for this series.

[@thesleepydot]

wow, so well spoken! I completely agree

[@nisbahmumtaz909]

Your voice and tone is one of the most underrated aspects about this presentation. Very clearly spoken, nicely articulated, nothing that gives me the vibe that you were chasing the thesaurus for additional content; everything that was added to the script is purely meaningful on its own. You were truly gifted for this.

[@alvinpoly2781]

I greatly appreciate the work you put into these documentaries. In this time of clickbaits and mass video releases, quality projects like these are really what keeps me interested. You deserve a million subs and I can't wait for more to come!

[@burneraccountforthewin]

This was an incredible well done documentary! Great voice, pacing and visual editing. The section about Collateral Damage was devastating. So many young minds wasted on false research

[@mitchchang5329]

Thank you for this great series. I always think Batlogg should share nearly half of the responsibility. He is the supervisor of Schoen the postdoc for God's sake. He should be the one to spot the fraud at the first place. Facing great discoveries, he is not curious at all about the details. Unbelievable.

[@finwefingolfin7113]

I agree. Same goes for Bao and Kloc. If it was me in their position, I would have insisted on seeing his 'devices' from time to time out of pure wonder and to see for myself their seemingly miraculous properties. Also to see the use to which the fruits of my labour as a chemist had been put. But he had no devices ( or very few) and no real test results. It was all bullshit. Did he constantly give lame excuses for not having devices to show them? Did that not make them suspicious? How did he do everything he claimed with no money and no visible equipment? Surely this must have rung alarm bells within the administration! All this incredible breakthrough science in multiple different fields on the smell of an oily rag and with no visible hardware. Where were the lasers? and all the other stuff he was supposed to have made singlehandedly? Why did no-one ask to actually see any of this stuff?? The only thing he ever actually produced was fake graphs on his PC. It's literally unbelievable that no-one else knew.

[@lornarettig3215]

Same. I read ‘Plastic Fantastic’ a few years ago, and was struck that literally no one felt that they were in any way responsible for this debacle, instead loudly congratulating themselves on pointing the finger at Schön. I’m sure Batlogg was happy enough to share in the glory when things seemed to be going well, and couldn’t throw Schön under the bus quick enough when the spotlight turned to him. Craven.

[@libbybollinger5901]

@@finwefingolfin7113 personally, I think that Batlogg holds more responsibility that Bao and Kloc, because he was Schön’s supervisor, and this held a position of responsibility and authority over Schön.

[@twobats]

As someone who has an interest in science but no motive to pursue it or really learn any more than basic chemistry and physics, this is absolutely _fascinating._ Thank you for making these videos, I've been completely enamored by this man's downfall for the entire runtime.

[@Mmouse_]

I love your style, I imagine it takes a long time but the way the information is laid out and stays there whilst we go on a journey through it is awesome.

[@RaIshtar]

Figured it was high time for a rewatch, and this was as good as I remembered it. I hope you keep making bangers like this. All your videos are equal parts enthralling and instructive. Absolutely one of the best creators on the platform, the sheer quality is unmatched. It's easy to listen to, well-written, with many hooks that keep you wanting for more info, delivered really well... Thanks a ton for your work.

[@khamsin5888]

Wow, I'm shocked that this has such low views. What a well-made, excellent documentary. It was compelling, easy to follow and the visuals were great. I've already sent it to some friends!

[@jacobk1655]

Your channel is criminally underrated, as someone whose work partially involves digesting and critiquing research this series has been very enjoyable and has actually made me re-think the way I approach academic papers. I hope you continue to make this type of content and in due time hopefully get a bit more recognition.

[@extremelyhappysimmer]

This series was phenomenal. I know nothing abou physics, but you were able to explain things in a way even I could understand. Your narration style, the way you constructed graphs to show how absurd things were, were entertaining while also explaining what happened. Bravo!

[@stellarjuly]

How many pages?!?! Gather up NCTZENS

[@V_y-r_e]

This series is among my favourite things I’ve seen this year. It might even be my video(s) of the year. Well done.

[@BobbyBroccoli]

This is such an amazing compliment, thank you!

[@noidea5082]

You took an incredibly complex story and made it flow like a page-turner novel. The sheer amount of research that you put into this to explain the figures and make a detailed account of people involved is just astonishing! And what an ingenious editing format to display all this information clearly. Hats off to you, sir!

[@enchyxxx]

Wow, amazingly well done docu-series, just binged all 3 parts. Thank you for your effort!

[@worstspytf2824]

These are the type of topics I would never have learned of or delved into without high quality videos like these to bring them to my attention and I thank you for making them.

[@tovarischkrasnyjeshi]

Man... as a linguistics MA student I'm itching to see something like this on the Linguistics Wars. Not that they're really similar events, but this is fascinating and very well done and you don't see things like this outside physics it seems. (And not that I expect anyone to familiarize themselves with several degrees worth of linguistics to discuss it either).

[@johndododoe1411]

Having suffered reading supposed real linguists argue completely invalid points about my native tongue has given me a huge disrespect for the field. It's like the legend of medieval philosophers arguing from old texts how many teeth in a horses mouth without even considering looking at a horse as a valid argument.

[@corvuscallosum5079]

@@johndododoe1411 I'm sort of an aspiring linguist and would really appreciate a bit more elaboration on the sort of things you mean, or if you have any sources I could read. Sorry about your suffering in any case.

[@mrelephant2283]

the main thing that I would know about disputes in Linguistics would be: The idea of an Altaic Language Family (connecting the various Turkic, Tungisic and Mongolic (maybe even Koreanic and Japonic) languages into one) Daniel Everett's claim that Piraha cannot embed one clause within another (very few other linguists know Piraha so it's difficult to verify his claims) The degree to which Sapir-Wolph hypotgesis true and also Morris Swadesh' ideas that you could calculate the rate of language change over time by the rate of the change in its core vocabulary over that span of time.

[@tjenadonn6158]

@@mrelephant2283 The Sapir-Worf hypothesis in general tends to attract the fundamentalist type. One of my main areas of linguistic interest is constructed/planned languages (as if my profile pic didn't make that apparent enough,) and the impetus behind many language projects, including some relatively successful ones like Toki Pona and Lojban, is a Worfian (Sapirian?) idea that changing the language you speak will in some way change the way you perceive process the world. You can see a lot of this refected in the New Yorker profile of Ithkuil creator John Quejada, Ithkuil being a language that has gained equal amounts of fame and notoriety for both it's overwhelming ambition and complexity, to the point where not even Quejada himself can speak it fluently.

[@darkenstardragon]

It should be a crime that this video still doesn’t have millions of views, but thank you for making this series for all humanity

[@elliot20201]

I listened to all 3 parts during busywork or at the gym the past few days, and can I just say how well done these were! A very interesting story, well-researched, and presented in an engaging way that kept me listening. I love video essays, but a tragic many of them go unfinished because my attention span is just so shit. But you kept me around the whole way through for these! Thank you for the hard work, and for sharing! I'd never even heard of this guy before.

[@merryjman]

I have watched a lot of documentaries and science/math/tech channels on youtube, and so I can say with confidence that you are really really good at this. Narrative structure, compelling and helpful visuals, in-depth research of the source material, a light sense of humor, all of it. I can't imagine how many hundreds of hours it took to produce this series, and kudos for pulling it off. You got yourself a new patron with this and the SSC videos, and I look forward to more of the same!

[@rosen_venus]

Always interesting to hear about cases of academic integrity. I think part of the root cause (as you addressed earlier in the series) is that belief students have that they need to be "right" and "get results" rather than learn and observe. It's not a thought that comes out of nowhere, but rather something ingrained from our time in school (high school mainly, but also college). For a long time in your education, you're either right or wrong, and when you evaluate your worth as a person via your grades, those wrong answers become very difficult to deal with... of course a number of people who begin in research have difficulty unlearning that mentality. Oddly enough the only lab course I've had so far that bothered to instruct us on academic integrity was my physics lab, where I believe the activity centered around this very same case. I remember being baffled at how easy it was for him to get away with "trimming" his data without anyone noticing; now I understand. Great videos.

[@fish3977]

I'd argue that while that may play a part the fact that academia runs on the publish or perish motto where results are a requisite for work

[@silkworm6861]

That's an amazing production, well done! I wonder what Schön's endgame was. No rational person could think that that show could go on forever. Even if he hadn't been sloppy forging the figures, it would have been just a matter of time before the pressure to reproduce (and monetize) became too much.

[@colinbrown3775]

He probably thought that his results were replicable, and that he just needed to wait for someone else to do it. From his perspective he was just skipping the hard/boring steps to take credit for what he hoped was going to be proven true. He was more delusional and obsessed with getting ‘good’ results than a deliberate fraudster.

[@StuartFknLil]

☝️I like this bad ending theory.

[@troodon1096]

I don't think he had an end game. He just honestly thought it would work out in the end, that eventually the results would be replicated; why wouldn't he think that, when he always produced the results people said they expected to find. Science can be messy, and that's something he hated; he wanted it to be neat, even if he had to fake the data to make it so. It's a weird kind of fraud; he wasn't doing it to enrich himself, clearly. It's like he was defrauding reality itself.

[@navi5490]

HOW MANY PAPERS?!?‼️‼️⁉️🔥🔥🔥🗣️🗣️🗣️

[@mera9244]

NEO GOT MY BACK‼‼⁉

[@navi5490]

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[@sunfvalley]

LIKE A STICKAA STICKAAAAA

[@user-tk1lf5hi6f]

Stumbled upon your channel randomly and this series on Schon is amazing and reason enough for me to subscribe. I haven't had a chance to view your other videos yet but it feels so good to come across channels like this.

[@potatoboyhats905]

Loved the series man. Well edited, humorous, intriguing, and mind blowing. Hope this gets more views!

[@natedrummer95]

You are the Jon Bois of science essays with this series and I am soooooo here for it

[@cathe8282]

Terrific, high quality, well-documented ,researched, and clearly concise. One of the top documentaries I've seen in a long time. Considering I knew nothing of this guy at the beginning I was deeply engaged and kept up for the entire 3 parts. If this is a sample of your work, I can't wait to see more. Fastest subscribe based on content. Good work!

[@blpblp-tj7ux]

just discovered this channel, and i am immediately a fan. this series is probably one the most fascinating and watchable i have ever seen. well done.

[@Gigacolossus]

Physicist and Chart Party fan here. I recognized the Jon Bois influence immediately and I'm glad YT recommended part 1 to me. This was fantastic, well-done, thoroughly researched, and entertainingly constructed. You should be proud of yourself. Incredible work.

[@Just.A.T-Rex]

No crazy ads? Top tier content? Great production? I hope you blow up man. Keep up the great work!

[@jaythatguyyouknow5135]

It’s crazy the fact that many people like myself that are not only willingly watching this content but entertained enough to where we sit through all 3 parts and enjoy every minute of it. When I say people like me, I mean people who never came close to having a Phd. It’s a true testament to your production, presentation and delivery. Please never stop because you have this simple mechanic watching this with his 2 young sons and we all love it.

[@SkateboardRanch]

Awesome work! Just watched the whole trilogy and I’m amazed at the quality of your productions. Great story telling and incredible research! I want more of this! 👍🏻

[@SacredDaturana]

This was excellent, thank you for this. I did not expect to spend a couple of hours being intensely interested in a story about academic dishonesty. I can definitely see why other scientists took so long to cotton on to Schon's fraud. He doesn't fit the popular profile of the kind of narcissist sociopath you'd imagine would perpetuate this kind of long con, and his apparently unassuming nature was probably pretty disarming. That story about how he didn't bother to deposit his paycheck for months would be extremely endearing if not for the context.

[@alexis_evo]

What an absolutely stunning series. The story, the narration, and the vfx were all extremely well done. It's rare the algorithm genuinely gives you quality content from a small time creator. Subbed and checking out the rest of your videos.

[@fattimiv]

This was an incredible series of videos! Fantastic quality, well researched, and fascinating!

[@rossstewart9475]

Mr Mackay, this series was exceptional - it's clear the effort that went in, and I'm so very grateful for your sharing. May the view keep coming.

[@yungglis7402]

Crazy this only just popped up in my feed so long after, all 3 parts are a masterfully Crafted documentary! The amount of work, passion and effort you put into this shows. Well done

[@wabznasm9660]

This series has been an absolute treat. Thank you for taking the time and effort and sharing with us your incredible talent.

[@baronvonlimbourgh1716]

Damn, this series just came up in autoplay and i was glued to the tv for an hour and a half. Great stuff. I hope the rest of your channel is just as good 👍

[@dekenba6482]

Seriously impressed with this channels output. Really high quality, amazingly well researched, uniquely presented, well narrated.

[@kynos6219]

Amazing video, the way you took such a complex and technical story and made it easily understandable through visuals and comparisons is next level.

[@kynos6219]

Also see you were asking how people found your KZbin and Jacob Geller recommended your most recent vid on Twitter and I liked it so much to check out the rest of your channel.

[@justsomenightowl7220]

I cant believe how you animated it all into one thing, it's so satisfying to watch a video like that. Also, the research on this must've taken forever, thank you for doing this :) I really enjoyed learning about it. Truly fascinating

[@zebulonforchion1725]

I just found this channel today and I have spent the last few hours transfixed by this quality work! It feels like every time I think Ive found the last interesting youtube documentary maker, I find a new small channel with such style and substance!

[@MultiSciGeek]

Pretty enjoyable series, and huge archive value. Thanks for making this

[@heartpng]

I'm so glad your channel got recommended, I've been going through your videos and you do such a great job of explaining the science and stories in an interesting and understandable way. This was a great series and I really appreciate how you take time at the end to show how the fraud affected other researchers. Also you editing style using 3D spaces is so unique! Hope your channel continues to grow, you deserve it.

[@blitchcore]

You have such a knack for storytelling, I was engaged for all 90+ or so minutes of this when I usually lose focus on a video essay after 5

[@JessaLynn8]

You put a TON of effort into this video! Thank you for that. Much appreciated ❤

[@NiNolascivio]

This was such an impressive series of videos. Not just the subject matter, but the narration, music and the awesome editing. You did a phenomenal job bring everything together for a lay person to understand. Not just the key players, but how the process worked and the ramifications it had. The ripples it caused not only to the field, but the collateral damage it had to upcoming scientists. Brovo sir!

[@FiruNazgulio]

What an amazing video series. Thank you so much for making these!

[@_gamma.]

What a fantastic series, thank you for making it and I really enjoyed the style!

[@soosetch]

Amazing stuff. Thank you for putting in the work to make such entertaining yet informative videos

[@octaveleveque3697]

Truly amazing ! Saw the first part in the recommendations and decided to give it a shot, it was one of my best decisions this was so interesting to watch I didn"t get bored a single time during the whole documentary. Really great job man keep up the good work !

[@noonehere8416]

I have been waiting for the conclusion to this series with bated breath and I was absolutely not disappointed. You have done incredible work here. I personally can't wait to not only watch this series over and over but also to tell every single person I know about this topic.

[@Aster_Risk]

This was an incredible series to watch. Everything about it was completely engrossing. The writing, narration, on screen graphics and interviews worked perfectly together. I can't wait to see more stuff like this on this channel.

[@lydiawu2676]

Fantastic production of these three parts! Thoroughly enjoyed learning from this through you. All I can say: wow wow wow.

[@mauroverhoest3905]

This series is amazing!!! Love the graphics,soundscape and deeeep research ofcourse!

[@dudewhateverish]

This is an incredibly well done series. You deserve a Netflix documentary series. Amazing job communicating a complex story. Your calendar / graph overlays are amazing.

[@vesper1140]

Wow you did a really great job with this series. This is top tier YT content, wish you the best.

[@aaclovern9804]

I keep returning to these videos. They are so nicely made!

[@chiblast100x]

I'm glad I went and checked for what else you'd done after watching the SSC vid series YT pushed to my notifications recently. These are some of the best handled science documentaries I've watched, and the presentation format is both novel and hyper-informative.