Retraction. Its a word that for many scientists is synonymous with phrases like ‘failure’, ‘dishonesty’, and ‘career ending’. A recent Retraction Watch features an interview with Pamela Roland, a Professor from UC Davis, who retracted two high profile papers on plant immunity two years ago.

Prior to her retractions, Roland was at a career high. She was a vocal advocate for sustainable agriculture, known for making making plant biology accessible to the public and proponent of food safety. She was doing important work that captured the imagination and winning accolades for her TED talks, publications and books.

In the Retraction Watch interview, Roland and her co-first author discuss how they were able to make a better lab from this experience and ultimately find the pesky protein they misidentified in prior work. (Note to everyone who skips the link: make sure you double and triple check your bacterial stocks).

There are some great pointers here on lab notebook keeping, communication, embracing criticism that was pointed at best and coming out the other side. Read and learn from this great team.

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