A few scientific papers are retracted after they're published, such as this analysis of nuclear energy that appears to have been nixed for poor methodology and bad numbers on Stoat. William M. Connolley adds that because of the politics surrounding nuclear power in Europe, "this crude level of analysis would be unlikely to be useful." But on Respectful Insolence, Orac looks at an anti-vaccine abstract that was so awful the publisher decided to take it down before the paper could be published. Orac writes, "basically, this paper is crap, so much so that even a predatory open access publisher pulled it, at least temporarily." And on Pharyngula, PZ Myers has fun deconstructing the "balloon animal biology" of Stuart Pivar et. al. which despite being well-illustrated "is all entirely fanciful, not based on observations of real animals at all." PZ, who knows how a fetus actually develops, says: "I just…I just…I don’t know what to say. This is madness." As published by Elsevier.
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