Nature.

In a experiment, I don't know yet.

Why is blight so far?

Like, it sounds so simple.

They had no idea.

But now the data's...

I find this not only refreshing, but at some level astounding.

Nature.

Nature.

Welcome back to the nature podcast.

This week, Elizabeth Bick, the scientific image detective.

And how air pollution can form in cities.

I'm Nick Howe.

And I'm Charmany Bundell.

First up, reporter Adam Levy has made contact with a scientific sleuth.

Elizabeth Bick spends her days reading academic papers. Well, actually, reading might not be the right word. I can indeed scan hundreds of papers sometimes a day because I just look at the images.

I'm just like a four-year-old scanning a book for the pictures. Elizabeth is a science consultant

based in Sunnyvale, California, and she's staring at pictures

for a reason to look for patterns.

She's hunting for duplicated images, sometimes which have been flipped, rotated, or

digitally manipulated.

These can suggest mistakes or malpractice on the part of researchers, and Elizabeth shares her finds with journals, as well as by posting publicly.

...