Academic's probe leaves questions unanswered

ON FRIDAY NIGHT, Hebei University of Science and Technology published the results of its investigation into claims associate professor Han Chunyu falsified his research results. ScienceNet, a website co-sponsored by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, comments:

Han, who published a paper on a new gene editing tool NgAgo in Nature two years ago, faced challenges because his experiment could not be replicated by others. His paper was withdrawn last August. The investigation by HUST came to four main conclusions: First, the withdrawn essay should not be published again. Second, there is no evidence showing Han or his team intentionally fabricated their data. Third, Han has positively returned all the honorary titles and benefits he got based on the paper. Fourth, the investment in Han's projects based on the paper has been withdrawn.

Let's analyze these one by one.