女版喬布斯未脫醜聞 再惹風波
A prestigious scientific organisation has descended into infighting over a decision to invite Elizabeth Holmes, founder of blood-testing group Theranos, to deliver a presentation at its annual conference this week, with at least two members of the association threatening to resign.
一個久負盛名的科學組織陷入內訌，癥結是邀請驗血集團Theranos創始人伊麗莎白•霍姆斯(Elizabeth Holmes)在該組織本週舉行的年會上發表演講的決定。至少兩名協會成員威脅要辭職。
The American Association for Clinical Chemistry invited Ms Holmes to deliver a 90-minute talk in front of 3,000 scientists on Monday night despite protests from some scientists responsible for organising the conference, who argued that a series of damaging scandals at Theranos should disqualify the company.
美國臨牀化學協會(American Association for Clinical Chemistry)邀請霍姆斯在週一晚向3000名科學家發表90分鐘的演講，儘管一些負責組織會議的科學家提出抗議，他們主張，Theranos爆出的一系列醜聞應當使該公司失去資格。
Ms Holmes had been expected to use the session to present scientific data in defence of her company’s proprietary blood-testing technology, including a tiny finger-prick vial or “nanotainer” that she claims can generate accurate test results without traditional needles or venous draws.
此前人們曾預計，霍姆斯將利用本次會議陳述相關科學數據，爲她的公司專有的驗血技術辯護，包括“Nanotainer”指尖採血小瓶子。她聲稱，僅這點血液就足以產生精確的檢驗結果，而無需傳統的針頭或靜脈抽血。
However, Ms Holmes, whose company is under Federal criminal investigation, sidestepped past controversies and used her appearance to unveil a completely new machine, the MiniLab, which she said could enable small samples of blood to be analysed remotely using cloud computing.
然而，其公司正受到聯邦刑事調查的霍姆斯，在會上回避了過往的爭議，而是利用這一露面機會展示一款全新的機器，稱爲MiniLab。她聲稱，藉助雲計算，用這臺機器可以對少量血液樣本進行遠程分析。
Theranos earned plaudits for the nanotainer when it launched in 2013 but in recent months the company has been tarnished by damaging revelations over the limitations of its technology, culminating in Ms Holmes being banned from the industry for two years.
Theranos的nanotainer在2013年推出後曾贏得讚譽，但在最近數月，該公司的聲譽受到損害，原因是有爆料稱，其技術存在種種侷限性。這一醜聞最終導致霍姆斯面臨在兩年內不得擁有或掌管這一行業實驗室的禁令。
She was handed the ban after a government inspection of one of the company’s labs concluded that erroneous results had put patient lives at risk.
對她的禁令頒佈之前，政府部門對該公司實驗室之一的檢查得出結論：錯誤結果使患者的生命處於危險之中。
Several scientists on the committee responsible for organising the meeting opposed the decision to invite Ms Holmes fearing it would lend credibility to her company, while others decided to boycott the presentation in protest. They believe the association invited Ms Holmes in order to generate publicity.
會議組織委員會的多名科學家反對邀請霍姆斯，擔心這將給她的公司帶來不應有的可信度，而還有一些人決定抵制霍姆斯的演講以示抗議。他們認爲，協會邀請霍姆斯是爲了炒作。
Dr Andy Hoofnagle, a member of the organising committee, said he and several of his colleagues had “fought really hard to prevent” Ms Holmes from appearing but were overruled by Patricia Jones, the AACC president. “This conference is about peer reviewed science — you don’t bring in advertisers and give them the stage at a scientific meeting,” said Dr Hoofnagle.
組委會成員安迪•胡夫納格爾博士(Dr Andy Hoofnagle)表示，他和他的幾個同事“真的盡了很大努力阻止”霍姆斯來，但他們的意見被美國臨牀化學協會主席帕特里夏•瓊斯(Patricia Jones)否決了。“這場會議展示的是經過同行評議的科學——你不能把廣告商請來，讓他們登上一個科學會議的舞臺，”胡夫納格爾博士表示。
Ms Jones defended the AACC’s decision to invite Theranos to speak and said that the leadership of the association had the right to determine who should appear.
瓊斯辯護了美國臨牀化學協會邀請霍姆斯發言的決定，稱協會領導層有權決定誰應該上臺發言。
