[0708.4013] The Axis of Opportunity: The Large-Scale Correlation of Elliptical Galaxies
OK, a few days ago I pointed at an astronomy preprint that suggested the semi-local elliptical galaxies had a preferred axis of orientation. That paper was apparently WRONG because:
"This paper has been withdrawn by the author due to the discovery of a serious bias resulting from the systematic dimming of galaxies with larger ellipticities away from the North Galactic Pole. Thus the conclusion that there is a special axis along which the elliptical galaxies tend to be aligned is incorrect."
Well, it happens. The difference between science and other fields of human endeavor is that science is self-correcting. The vast majority of scientists caught making a mistake will be the quickest, loudest critics to get the record set straight. This is because reputation and integrity are coins of the scientific realm. You get a rep for being sloppy, wrong, or just plan bad and you lose everything. So when you do make a mistake (and it happens to us all, even the best of us), you go out of your way to correct it. It gnaws at you, makes you lose sleep, until it's fixed. I just wish more areas were the same...and unfortunately I'm talking about everything else, pretty much.