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67 comments to "10 Scientific Frauds that Rocked the World."
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Miss Cellania
September 19th, 2006 at
4:45 am
Fascinating! I remember the Tasasday, and the moths, but I never knew they turned out to be frauds. The bigger headlines come from the original stories. The followups probably got buried on page ten.
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Retrokatze
September 19th, 2006 at
7:13 am
The peppered moth story is not a fraud.
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Lex10
September 19th, 2006 at
9:14 am
Yarrrrr! Where be the bogus cloned Korean dog, matey?
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Matt
September 19th, 2006 at
10:38 am
Wow, someone needs to take a better look at that list. Psychiatry didn’t even make it on there, and it is by far the most prevalent detriment to all mankind.
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Alex
September 19th, 2006 at
10:57 am
The story of the Tasaday is far more complicated than indicated above. They were not a true stone-age tribe, but neither were they actors paid to pose as a stone-age tribe. The consensus now seems to be that they were extremely poor people, genuinely living a very primitive lifestyle, who got swept up in global events and were manipulated by almost everyone they met: scientists, politicians, and the media. Robin Hemley examines this complicated story in his book INVENTED EDEN. I’ve tried to summarize the story on my website. I should note that I’ve been guilty myself of telling the Tasaday-as-a-hoax story, but since reading Hemley’s book I’ve been trying to help set the record straight.
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Kevin
September 19th, 2006 at
11:17 am
You believe Judith Reisman? Kinsey’s report may not be perfect but Judith Reisman is a right-right-right-wing quack. Subsequent studies that improved on Kinsey’s interviewing techniques found few differences in their conclusions. It’s Reisman who was eventually debunked.
Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinsey_Report
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garg
September 19th, 2006 at
11:34 am
What? No Bat Boy in the list?
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MisterTrilby
September 19th, 2006 at
3:47 pm
RE: Anything for Albert - Eddington may have been discredited, but evidence for gravitational lensing (the phenomenon in question, which Einstein predicted was possible but didn’t expect to find any evidence of) is available throughout the universe. Just Google it, or look it up on spacetelepscope.org under Cosmology. Or even Wikipedia.
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Ron
September 19th, 2006 at
4:31 pm
Although Johann Beringer’s experiments were not perfect, they were not fatally flawed. Although no experiment is perfect (nor can be), even imperfect experiments can give supporting or disconfirming evidence. In the case of fossilized fossils of birds, beetles, moons, and stars, many experiments have been done, and they all support the traditional story.
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ted
September 19th, 2006 at
4:36 pm
The entire field of psychiatry is not fraudulent. Methinks Tom Cruise was visiting this site, to make that silly comment.
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Emma Eckstein
September 19th, 2006 at
6:09 pm
You missed Freud. He falsified practically all his case histories and he was way more influential than any of the guys you cited.
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Alex
September 20th, 2006 at
12:26 am
Lex10, I think the article was written pre-cloning controversy.
Ron, you’re probably right. It’s not that this calls evolution into question, the evidence for it is overwhelming. However, IMHO, the peppered moth experiment by Beringer is very flawed.
The list is by no means exhaustive. There’s no piltdown man, Sokal affair (ok, not really a fraud, but still interesting), calaveras skull, archaeoraptor, etc.
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Alex
September 20th, 2006 at
12:31 am
Alex, I think the Tasaday hoax qualifies as a fraud - the people may be indigenous to the region, and they may be goaded or forced to “act” like stone-aged people, but act they did.
I’m not too familiar with the Kinsey report, but there are many ambiguous methodologies in social studies of that era. I’m sure there are facets of the Kinsey report that have proven the test of time, and there are some that haven’t.
Ditto Freud - I only know enough about Freud to appreciate the Freudian slipper post previously on Neatorama: http://www.neatorama.com/2006/09/16/freudian-slippers/
Thanks everyone for the insightful comment!
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JOHN
September 20th, 2006 at
1:10 am
Where could I find the picture of Quadro QRS 250G? Who knows? Thanks.
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Matt S
September 20th, 2006 at
8:36 am
There was nothing wrong at all with the the Kettleworth Peppered Moth work. He put the moths on the tree trunks just to make it easier to photograph, the actual work was extensive and well done. The moths do rest both on the trunks and the leaves and natural selection was in operation. Look here for more:
The Peppered Moth Story, http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB601.html
in particular:
http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB601_1.html -
John
September 20th, 2006 at
9:44 am
What about the hoax of the ancient eqyptians(Kemet) being European?
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Erik
September 20th, 2006 at
10:22 am
You totally missed Piltdown. That should have been your number one. GREATLY more significant than the Cardiff Giant in the world of science.
Your comments on Kinsey is only perpetuated generally anti-sex, right-wing cranks.
The recent mess involving cloning in Korea should have been on the list. -
AK
September 20th, 2006 at
11:48 am
I strongly believe that most of papers published or presented by Einstien were fradulent or stolen since he had worked at Swiss Patent Office as patent clerk.
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Alex
September 20th, 2006 at
5:21 pm
And written by Einstein’s wife, AK?
You’re right Erik - the article didn’t have Piltdown man and the cloning mess in South Korea. As far as the Kinsey thing - I did write (in the comments #12 and #13, the Alex in #5 is Alex Boese of Museum of Hoaxes) that I’m not familiar with the details of either his work or with Judith Reisman.
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Phil
September 20th, 2006 at
6:09 pm
Um, what the heck is Ron talking about? Finding fake fossils has been supported by experiments?
In what universe does his comment make even a tiny bit of sense? Every time I read it my head hurts more. -
H
September 20th, 2006 at
6:23 pm
Schon didn’t duplicate a graph in two unrelated papers. He copied *NOISE* from a graph into two unrelated graphs. Since noise is, be definition, random, having the same noise in two unrelated graphs gave him away. He had been fabricating data and copying noise into it to make it look real.
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NelC
September 20th, 2006 at
7:17 pm
Nod. The peppered moth experiments have been totally misrepresented by Judith Hooper in her book Of Moths and Men. They were good science. See here:
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NelC
September 20th, 2006 at
7:26 pm
I can’t find any references to Eddington disposing of plates, but considering that the plates were taken in field conditions (in Brazil and Guinea), it would be a surprise if all the plates were perfect and none were useless for measurement.
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Darran
September 20th, 2006 at
10:55 pm
Some of the above aren’t necessarily examples of fraud but rather examples of “pathological science”. A prime example is the case of so-called “N-Rays” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N_ray). A fantastic article on the topic of bad science appeared in the October 1989 issue of Physics Today. It was the transcription of a talk given by Irving Langmuir. Well worth visiting the local uni library to read.
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Ron
September 21st, 2006 at
5:49 am
I basically plagiarized the comments from the link Retrokatze provided earlier and substituted Beringer’s work for Kettlewell’s. I was attempting to point out that unsound well delivered explanations are still unsound.
I tried unsuccessfully to be witty.
Maybe God changed the moths.
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tsm
September 21st, 2006 at
12:28 pm
Kinsey’s work may be flawed, but Reisman’s criticisms should be ignored. Her own work is extremely biased and purely politically motivated - she is an outspoken advocate of a nonsensical, completely unsubstantiated theory that pornography produces “erototoxins” in the brain that produce the urge to rape and murder. If anything, her work would be a far better example of scientific fraud, although it hasn’t “rocked the world”, thankfully.
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sudont
September 21st, 2006 at
1:39 pm
Yeah, can’t believe they left out Piltdown Man and Second-hand Smoke! I guess Piltdown is too widely known, and Second-hand Smoke is too recent. But Second-hand Smoke is a great example of bogus science used for political ends.
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Medievalist
September 21st, 2006 at
3:01 pm
Ha! Great hoax list of hoaxes. Kudos! Slipping a real unequivocal hoax (Cardiff man) in there was brilliant!
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Dan
September 21st, 2006 at
3:02 pm
Uh, what kind of wacko religious agenda are you pushing here? You included one “hoax” experiement that supports evolution and one that supports the existance of homosexuals. Both were valid experiements, and no sh-t blog post relegating them to “hoax” status is going to change the science behind them.
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Alex
September 21st, 2006 at
3:25 pm
Alex, there was plenty of deception to go around in the Tasaday case, but the Tasaday themselves now appear to have been the least to blame. They were not local farmers, as the above blurb claims. They really were living a very primitive life in the jungle, as close to “Stone Age” as any group on the planet. But they were not as isolated as first reports claimed. They also hammed it up for the camera, because they liked the attention. But they didn’t actually misrepresent who they were. Like I said, the whole story is told in detail in Hemley’s Invented Eden.
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Alex
September 21st, 2006 at
4:50 pm
H - so, it was copying noise that got him caught, huh?
Darran - thanks for telling us about the N-rays!
Medievalist - seems like 8 out of the 10 are out and out hoaxes, 2 are controversial
Dan - I’m not pushing any agenda (religious or not); that’s not what Neatorama is about.
Alex - I reprinted the article verbatim, after reading your article, I agree that the real story is more complex. I encourage those who want to read more about the Tasadays to visit Alex’s website: Link.
Does anyone remember the name of a Pacific Island tribe that fooled a famous researcher regarding the role of sex in their societal structure?
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Aleki
September 22nd, 2006 at
4:55 pm
Alex… I love your site.
Dan… No one is forcing you to come here and look at the site. Therefore no “agenda” could possibly be pushed. Besides it’s his site… he can post whatever he wants.
Keep up the good work Alex.
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Xenu
September 28th, 2006 at
4:29 pm
What about Scientology? How could you leave out the dubious(at best)claims of L. Ron Blubber and his brainwashed crew?
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Freezerburnt
September 30th, 2006 at
1:55 am
Alex I love your site…keep it up. I do remember some of these and they make interesting reading. I am a trivia buff and this falls right up my main line…lol.
As you said…no one is forcing anyone to be here!
Looking forward to more!! -
margot
December 2nd, 2006 at
5:36 pm
ah this site is sooo cool
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sweetpeapete
December 7th, 2006 at
1:27 pm
What fun! I’m kind of surprised at the lack of nitwits on this site. How refreshing. Robert Forward wrote a book (I cannot remember the title) that featured two worlds revolving around a common center of gravity. One world was covered with oceans and was populated by (among other things) sentient whale-like beings. Since they had no physical record keeping they had greatly developed minds and were mathematical geniuses. When humans asked how many more primary numbers there were (after supplying them with our known list) the ‘whales’ said “why, there are an infinite number”! That seems to support the foolish idea that anything is the last word in any topic. Thank goodness for that!
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Tim
February 2nd, 2007 at
4:23 pm
I still think Al Gore should be on the list for his money making adventure called “Global Warming”.
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i am the geek
February 6th, 2007 at
12:44 pm
indupidly, i think Al Gore was one of the best prime ministers that we’ve ever had…..
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Gildroy
February 6th, 2007 at
1:36 pm
yes i think that the santa clause hoax should also be included
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Santa Clause
February 7th, 2007 at
6:04 am
IT WAS NOT A HOAX!
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Gildroy
February 7th, 2007 at
11:03 am
well then why didnt i get a cat last year????!!!!????
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Santa Clause
February 8th, 2007 at
2:50 am
What? you didnt like that cat? i thought you’d love it! i am awfully sorry gildroy…
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bobby
February 8th, 2007 at
2:50 am
SANTA’S A NOB!
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Santa Clause
February 8th, 2007 at
2:51 am
OI!
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Gildroy
February 8th, 2007 at
2:14 pm
wat? i didnt even get the cat!!!! yeah santa is a nob!
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a strange melon head
February 8th, 2007 at
2:25 pm
i have a theory my fellow geekozoids that: santa is real but parents put the presents out themselves and put him out of his job! and sometimes it his food! and he told me he is gunna kill everyone next crimbo especially gildroy apparently! wat do u think old swatters
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a strange melon head
February 8th, 2007 at
2:27 pm
p.s do u like the game wack a mole? i think its bloody genius!!!!!!!!!
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i am the geek
February 8th, 2007 at
2:29 pm
i am afraid i do not know wat to say to this fearful comment, i must, with my deepest regards, decline any more contact with my fellow earthlings from the outside world, so i will now heanse forth proceed in bidding you ado, aurovoire…….. exterminate, exterminate, exterminate…..
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gildroy ( or wateva my name was)
February 8th, 2007 at
2:31 pm
go away i am the geek, wat i want to know is about this secret santa plot!!!!!!! im gonna have to put a bloody big mouse trap in the firplace then….
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a strange melon head
February 8th, 2007 at
2:34 pm
if this is called “10 Scientific Frauds that Rocked the World.” how come i havnt heard of bloody any!!!!!!!!! its Preposterous!
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tim the world
February 8th, 2007 at
2:36 pm
yeah im the world, and i havent heard of any of them and wasnt rocked!
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Aventien
February 20th, 2007 at
4:39 am
Mark twain????????
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Mark Twain
February 26th, 2007 at
2:16 pm
yes what do u want?
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Aventien
February 28th, 2007 at
6:05 am
Your a NOB! hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
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Mark Twain
February 28th, 2007 at
6:07 am
LEAVE ME ALONE! Stop being so horrible to me!
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Steven Hawking
February 28th, 2007 at
1:31 pm
Hello fellow scientific twats! i am a new man, not my old geeky self i am now a punk!!!!!!!!! and ur all sad just thaught i would let u know
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nowhere
May 24th, 2007 at
9:44 am
Answer to q at #31 - Trobriand Islands, part of Papua New Guinea. Margaret Mead was the (willing?) dupe.
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nowhere
May 24th, 2007 at
10:40 pm
Btw, I’d love to see a pic of a ‘fossilised’ star.
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nowhere
May 24th, 2007 at
10:54 pm
Found one: http://diglib.cib.unibo.it/diglib.php?inv=3&int_ptnum=&term_ptnum=119& format=jpg&comment=0&zoom=
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jobby
June 12th, 2007 at
3:57 am
yeh well i would love to see margret thatcher nacked on a cold day but it aint gonna happen fellow nerd!
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Bum fox
July 18th, 2007 at
3:50 am
Well I do believe that porky pig shouldd be prime minister as he would bring bacon to the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Bum fox
July 18th, 2007 at
3:51 am
can u believe that there are a group of people called gays?!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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cosmic burger
July 18th, 2007 at
3:53 am
who is this nowhere guy? He sounds like he pushes a long pipe into himself!
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cosmic burger
July 18th, 2007 at
3:55 am
I love Jobby he shall be my wife!
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Jobby
September 18th, 2007 at
8:24 am
i ate your wife!
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Beaverwanger
September 18th, 2007 at
8:41 am
hmmmmmmmm eating wifes eh… sounds like the misadventures of evil scientist lockchock!
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Goooooose!
September 18th, 2007 at
8:46 am
goosegooosegooosegoosegoosegoosegooosegooosegooosegooosegooosegooosego oosegooose
MOOOSEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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