Does Lysenkoism count? I don't know whether you'd want to stick that into science or anti-science propaganda though.
Simon LeVay wrote a really good book on this subject a few years ago called
When Science Goes Wrong. A few of the highlights I remember (some of which I think you've touched upon in the podcast):
- A patient going to China to get a stem cell transplant in a patient's brain which ended up killing the patient. On autopsy, the "stem cells" had grown hair follicles.
- A group of researchers in South America enter a volcano they insist is dormant despite seismic events which point to a contrary conclusion... and the volcano erupts while they are inside of it.
- The nuclear accident at SL-1 (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SL-1). If you do include this, I *highly* recommend the first paragraph on it from the book, which is the most awesome paragraph ever written in the history of mankind.
- That floating point error in programming on the Mars(?) spacecraft which caused the craft to descend at the wrong angle and die.
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Additionally, I think the Slotin incident bears some sort of mention. Slotin, of course, was a nuclear physicist who conducted a nuclear experiment which involved separating two halves of a critical mass of beryllium using his thumb and a screwdriver. The screwdriver slipped and Slotin (and I believe several others in the lab) received doses of radiation which turned out to be fatal (although Slotin's actions immediately after the criticality incident lessened the damage caused to others).
