[Goose]

I just don't see MTL, who was already well known, submitting a paper where he KNEW the photo of the blot was altered to change the result. It is not like one Cell paper more or less was going to have any effect on his career. Aside from any moral objections, why do it? You gain nothing but could lose everything. Just not worth the risk. 

This is good advice.  You should go back in time and give it to many criminal defendants who've pleaded guilty or been convicted of doing stupid shit they did not need to do.  See, for example, the powerful/wealthy defendants who went to jail in this fiasco:  
https://sevenpillarsinstitute.org/case-s...trading-2/.  
Or this billionaire who engaged in illegal lobbying for no good reason:  
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/elliott-b...gation-and.  
The examples of this sort of thing happening are many and frequent.

The examples you cite all involve the guilty parties making a very large amount of money by their "stupid" actions. In one case 900K, in the other "many millions". While one might argue their actions were "stupid" because they were not in desperate need of money (and were at great risk of getting caught), my point was that MTL would gain very, very little from one journal article more or less. His loss function would be much steeper and his gains much less, so much so that it would make no sense. A run of the mill journal article doesn't move the meter like a million dollars might.

[Goose]

I just don't see MTL, who was already well known, submitting a paper where he KNEW the photo of the blot was altered to change the result. It is not like one Cell paper more or less was going to have any effect on his career. Aside from any moral objections, why do it? You gain nothing but could lose everything. Just not worth the risk. 

This is good advice.  You should go back in time and give it to many criminal defendants who've pleaded guilty or been convicted of doing stupid shit they did not need to do.  See, for example, the powerful/wealthy defendants who went to jail in this fiasco:  
https://sevenpillarsinstitute.org/case-s...trading-2/.  
Or this billionaire who engaged in illegal lobbying for no good reason:  
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/elliott-b...gation-and.  
The examples of this sort of thing happening are many and frequent.

The examples you cite all involve the guilty parties making a very large amount of money by their "stupid" actions. In one case 900K, in the other "many millions". While one might argue their actions were "stupid" because they were not in desperate need of money (and were at great risk of getting caught), my point was that MTL would gain very, very little from one journal article more or less. His loss function would be much steeper and his gains much less, so much so that it would make no sense. A run of the mill journal article doesn't move the meter like a million dollars might.