Washington

The probe into alleged data falsification by one of the brightest stars in nanotechnology is widening. Over the past week, the number of papers under investigation has more than doubled, as scientists scrutinize the publications of Jan Hendrik Schön of Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

Nanotechnology researchers were stunned when news broke that some of Schön's papers on electronic devices made from organic molecules were being investigated. Graphs in separate papers describing the behaviour of different devices, operating under different conditions, contained plots that were apparently identical (see Nature 417, 367–368; 2002).

On 16 May, when Bell Labs announced that a panel headed by physicist Malcolm Beasley of Stanford University in California would lead the investigation, five papers — three in Science, one in Nature and one in Applied Physics Letters — were under suspicion. Another Science paper was soon added to the list.

And with researchers submitting additional papers to the panel, the total had risen to 14 by Nature's press deadline earlier this week. They include papers in Physical Review B, Synthetic Metals, Thin Solid Films and Physica Status Solidi B. Most were published in the past two years, although two date from 1998.

“We will look into all substantive allegations,” says Beasley. But the panel will not examine Schön's entire published output, which extends to more than 100 papers.

The researchers who found the first suspect figures say that they are now quitting the search. “I think the issues have been raised,” says Paul McEuen of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Lydia Sohn of Princeton University in New Jersey adds: “All of us are kind of burnt out. If people find more, I hope they will submit them to the panel.”