Two figures in perhaps the most celebrated scientific misconduct case of the past 20 years are back in the limelight. On 16 June forensic scientist Larry Stewart, 46 (top left), head of the U.S. Secret Service laboratory in Washington, D.C., pleaded not guilty to charges of perjury in connection with his role in the stock fraud conviction of lifestyle guru Martha Stewart (no relation). In the late 1980s Stewart's analysis of laboratory notebooks was central to a congressional investigation of scientific misconduct charges against MIT researcher Thereza Imanishi-Kari. A federal review panel later dismissed the Imanishi-Kari case, saying it found "no independent or convincing evidence" that she had fabricated data. An indictment by U.S. Attorney David Kelley alleges that Stewart, an ink expert, lied in the Martha Stewart trial earlier this year when he said that he personally analyzed her stock purchase orders. The prosecutor alleges that junior experts in the Secret Service actually did the work. Attorney Judith Wheat of Washington, D.C., who represents the accused agent, says her client "stands by his work and his testimony." And New York state officials argue that the stock fraud conviction cannot be appealed just because of this legal mess. On 8 June, Nobelist David Baltimore (inset), the molecular biologist who co-authored papers with Imanishi-Kari and came under fire for defending her, won recognition from a former employer that gave him chilly treatment during the furor. New York City's Rockefeller University, which had eased Baltimore out of its presidency at the peak of the misconduct flap in 1991, named him Doctor of Science (honoris causa), its highest honor. Current president Paul Nurse said the award for Baltimore, now president of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, was "the homecoming of Rockefeller University's most distinguished alumnus." CREDITS: (TOP TO BOTTOM) ED BAILEY/AP PHOTO; (INSET) COURTESY THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY