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A widely circulated quote attributed to Mark Zuckerberg suggests he characterized Cambridge Analytica's data practices as nothing unusual, implying similar data harvesting was common industry practice rather than a unique violation. The remark, dated to 2017, has resurfaced without full context around the original scandal that saw millions of Facebook users' data improperly obtained.
Jason Arday, professor of sociology of education at the University of Cambridge, resigned on 5 August after facing allegations of research misconduct and what he described as relentless public attack going beyond normal academic criticism. Nine days later, following sustained media coverage of his professional and personal life, he died. Nature's editorial calls for reflection on how universities handle misconduct investigations and how the press covers such cases, particularly given the racism present in much of the coverage.
In 1959, novelist and scientist C.P. Snow delivered Cambridge's Rede Lecture arguing that science and the humanities had split into mutually uncomprehending intellectual camps, a phrase that entered popular language as 'the two cultures.' Three years later, literary critic F.R. Leavis attacked Snow's argument as shallow and even called him a 'preposterous and menacing absurdity,' sparking one of the era's most heated intellectual feuds.