In view of the fact that the authors of 'Stimulus-triggered fate conversion of somatic cells into pluripotency' (H. Obokata et al. Nature 505, 641–647; 2014) and 'Bidirectional developmental potential in reprogrammed cells with acquired pluripotency' (H. Obokata et al. Nature 505, 676–680; 2014) are retracting their reports (see page 112), I wish to retract the News & Views article, 'Potency unchained' (Nature 505, 622–623; 2014), which dealt with these studies and was based on the accuracy and reproducibility of their data.