Hello and welcome back to Backchat. If the Nature podcast is a trusty old textbook, then Backchat is the notes I scrolled on the back of an envelope during a second year stats lecture. This month we're tackling scientific data, scientific papers and religion. I'm Adam Levy and joining me in the studio is Richard Van Norton. Hello, I'm Nature's European Bureau Chief out of London.

On the line from Munich is Alison Abbott.

Hi, I write for Nature from Munich.

And phoning in from Shanghai is David Sironoski.

Hello, I'm Nature's Asia-Pacific correspondent based in Shanghai.

We'll be starting off gently with the light topic of science and religion.

The current Pope, Pope Francis, is making efforts to connect with science and scientists alike.

Given the historically tempestuous relationship between science and religion, how should

scientists respond?

We'll also be taking a look at a crackdown on fake data

in China. We all want better data, but is the threat of the death penalty the way to achieve it?

Plus, we'll take a look at a paper that's been retracted, twice. How much can and should

scientific publishing learn from retractions like these?

First this month, religion, or to be more precise Catholicism,

Alison, this Pope has set himself apart in many ways and his engagement with science is just one of them.

Yes, that's right. Pope Francis became Pope in 2013,

and he has noticeably been more receptive to scientists.

What examples are there of this engagement?

So last week, there was a historic meeting of the Pope with about 1,000 members of the Huntington's disease

community around the world. And this is what set me on my train of thought about it. I wrote a leader

highlighting a couple of these examples. The initiative came from two scientists who work in Huntington's disease

and had been aware that they were using research material from Huntington's patients.

...