Before that, cold fusion.
We still have the ion drive that doesn't require fuel. I don't think it has ever been successfully replicated, but I think that it also hasn't been successfully repudiated, either.
This kind of thing has been going on for a long time. I suspect that not all of it is deliberate fraud, but rather, people wanting their preconceived bias to be satisfied.
Both of them are useful as is.
Replicating a social experiment, when successful, don't give you anything new.
Physics solved this quite some time ago.
This is a constant tug of war..