While paging through government science talks some time ago, I came across an amusing use of photo editing by science officials. The picture on the left appears in an April 6th 2006 presentation by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science Deputy Director, Patricia Dehmer. The picture on the right was used to illustrate a December 8th 2005 article on Nature.com. Both show the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) experiment at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) in Tennessee. (Before going any further, I ought to disclose that I’m currently suing the DOE under the Freedom of Information Act for an investigation report into inappropriate data manipulation by ORNL scientists – a story I covered for The Boston Globe in 2006.)
The cloud formations in the sky look very similar, as if the two pictures were taken within minutes of each other from a slightly ...
