Image Manipulation=Bad

While the vast majority (99%) of science articles are honest, sometimes, as in the case of the recent human stem cell controversy in South Korea, fraudulent data sees the light of day. The peer review system, in which articles submitted to scientific journal are read by other scientists prior to publication, works very well, but sometimes researchers can inappropriately manipulate image data with Adobe Photoshop. As anyone who ever "photoshopped" their friend into a group picture knows, it is pretty easy to change a picture. Scientists are allowed to change, for example, the brightness and contrast of an image, so long as the entire image is changed equally. However, sometimes even scientists can get a little carried away and change pictures in inappropriate ways, either inadvertently or advertently. This article has a nice explanation of the issue, and certainly raised my eyebrows a little bit.

Journal of Cell Biology link