The Washington Times reported last month that seven federal and state employees were caught submitting false samples of another threatened species in the state, the Canadian lynx. . . . "Unfortunately, the lynx biofraud is not an isolated event but an egregious example of a serious malady that has infected environmental regulatory agencies," said Rob Gordon, director of the National Wilderness Institute.

Vega Biochemicals, a private biotechnology firm based in Arizona with capital of only $7m, has had to swallow a $1.8m loss after Dr Joseph Cort, one of its senior scientists, admitted to fraud. New York's Mount Sinai Medical Center, where Dr Cort did his original work, recently announced that the doctor had lied about the results of synthesising certain proteins helpful in making blood clot.