Someone else here mentioned proofers, people that prepare marketing materials, as a potential source. I am in no way defending Thermo here. I just meant that the extend of the fraud needs to be determined, from some non-scientist making a decision for short term profits, frustrated that no one saved the picture, or because the pictures showed how ugly the western blots actually are, versus wholesale fabrication of the research from the bottom up.
reply> people that prepare marketing materials, as a potential source
replyScientific advertising and marketing is actually its own small specialized field, and is done by people with a solid technical background (we produce a whole lot of advanced STEM degrees, there's plenty of folks available with this sort of background).
So I just want to be crystal, crystal clear here: there's no way in hell anyone involved in this pipeline should have any doubt about as to whether drawing on gel photographs in photoshop and/or copying and pasting blots is fraud. "Proofer" or not.