When a paper released by a scientific journal turns out to be wrong – either due to human error or intentional fraud – the journal’s editors often will issue a retraction advising scientists to disregard the research. A recent Wall Street Journal study has found the number of such retractions to be soaring. We asked Wired Magazine science writer Jonah Lehrer what he thinks is going on.

There's often a really interesting story behind a retraction. That's what Ivan Oransky told us. He's a doctor and journalist and founder, along with Adam Marcus, of a blog called Retraction Watch. They monitor scientific journals and investigate why articles were retracted. They uncovered serious ethical breaches at a variety of journals. We asked Oransky to tell us about some of the stories he's covered this year.

Song: Lead Us To The End

Artist: The Quantic Soul Orchestra

Last week, a team of scientists at Columbia University published a study that said thanks to our instant access to nearly unlimited information via the internet, the way that we remember is changing. And almost immediately, the blogosphere lost its mind (pun intended), posting articles with titles like "Is Google Ruining Your Memory?," "Poor Memory? Blame Google," and the Pièce de résistance,"Google Turning us Into Forgetful Morons."  But is the story really that cut and dry?