The news that the South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk has been fired from his prestigious seat with Seoul National University caused shock waves in the medical world and beyond. His claims, going back over several years, to have cloned the first human embryos and to have extracted stem cells from them, turned out to have been false. Six other professors working with Hwang have also been disciplined.

His research had raised hopes of finding cures for a range of afflictions, including Parkinson