A Japanese researcher accused of fabricating scientific results originally hailed as a breakthrough in stem cell research has agreed to retract two papers, deepening doubts about her “game changing” findings. After staunchly defending her work in a rare, months-long public feud with the prominent Riken institute she works for, Haruko Obokata “has now agreed to a retraction” of the papers, a spokesman for the semi-governmental institute told Reuters yesterday. Riken said its investigations found Obokata had plagiarised and fabricated parts of the papers, raising doubts about the credibility of Japanese science.