Top 10 Science Hoaxes

[mhamzah]

10. The Nacirema tribe

The Nacirema were supposedly a tribe of people living in North America, as described by Horace Miner in his anthropological paper "Body Ritual among the Nacirema," published in 1956. It was actually a satire of everyday American life as it revolves around personal grooming, bathroom habits and body image. Nacirema is American spelled backward.

9. The disappearing blonde gene

Every generation or so, an alarm is sounded over a report that natural blondes will soon go the way of the dodo due to the shrinking number of people carrying the recessive blonde gene. Often attributed to the World Health Organization, or WHO, these reports have appeared in the media as far back as 1865 and as recently as 2006 when the story was featured on "The Colbert Report." The WHO has never conducted such a study, and most geneticists would agree that blondes are in no danger of going extinct.

8. "Say no to cake"

In 1995, British faux news show "Brass Eye" conducted an "investigative report" on a street drug they invented called "cake," claiming it affected an area of the brain called "Shatner's Bassoon." Members of the media lashed out against cake, and the British government even took the matter to Parliament.

7. Alien autopsy

English cameraman Ray Santilli claimed to own footage of an alien autopsy performed after the 1947 Roswell UFO incident. FOX aired a portion of it on television in 1995, but in 2006, Santilli confessed that the film was a "reconstruction." It had been shot in a London flat using fabricated alien bodies filled with animal entrails and raspberry jam.

6. The Turk

It was nearly impossible to beat this chess-playing automaton of 1770, named for its exotic, turban-clad appearance. It was even toured across Europe and North America. Many decades passed before it was revealed that the Turk was actually operated by a human chess whiz concealed amongst the complicated clockwork machinery that supposedly powered the Turk from the cabinet below.

5. The Fiji mermaid (aka "Feejee mermaid")

This artifact in P.T. Barnum's museum was advertised as a gorgeous topless siren, but was actually the mummified corpse of an ape sewn to a fish.

4. Rabbit mother

In 18th-century England, Mary Toft convinced doctors she had given birth to 16 rabbits. "A Short Narrative of an Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbets [sic]" was written by King George's surgeon about her case. People stopped serving rabbit stew. Once the hoax was discovered, the medical community suffered great embarrassment.

3. Dihydrogen monoxide

In 1989, a group of college students circulated flyers around the University of California, Santa Cruz campus warning of the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide contamination. The movement later spawned a Web site noting the widespread use of this hazardous compound despite being known to cause severe burns, corrosion of metals and even global warming. Many people have signed petitions urging the government to ban dihydrogen monoxide -- obviously unaware that this is just another term for plain old water.

2. Archaeoraptor

Unearthed in China in 1997, this creature was heralded as the "missing link" between dinosaurs and birds in a 1999 National Geographic article. The magazine later had to retract the article when it was discovered that the archaeoraptor specimen was a forgery, composed of fossilized bones from a known species of bird's upper half and a dinosaur's lower half.

1. Piltdown man

The skull and jawbone fragments collected from a gravel pit in Piltdown, England in 1912 were believed to represent the "missing link" between humans and apes, and were even introduced as evidence of human evolution in the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. Although the Piltdown man's authenticity was questioned by several leading scientists from the time of its discovery, it was not until 1953 that it was revealed as a forgery, consisting of an orangutan jaw and a modern human skull. Considered one of the greatest anthropological hoaxes of all time, the Piltdown man significantly influenced the study of human evolution for more than 40 years.

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Features/Lists/?article=10ScienceHoaxes&GT1=27004

 

[Summer03]

If these were all lies i wonder what else is...?

Creeps me out...

 

[al-fajr]

3. Dihydrogen monoxide

In 1989, a group of college students circulated flyers around the University of California, Santa Cruz campus warning of the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide contamination. The movement later spawned a Web site noting the widespread use of this hazardous compound despite being known to cause severe burns, corrosion of metals and even global warming. Many people have signed petitions urging the government to ban dihydrogen monoxide -- obviously unaware that this is just another term for plain old water.

Imagine falling for that one lol

:salam2:

 

[zainab bala]

na wa oh... scientist wahala!

 

[hana*]

my how the public are so gullible and believe anything that is fed to them. i was aware of the piltdown man, no wonder so many believe in evolution. im shocked that so many fell for the dihydrogen lol did anyone take chemistry at school? haha.

its sad that many believe what science says yet we question what Allah says.

 

[mhamzah]

More science Hoaxes

Archaeoraptor

"Archaeoraptor" is the generic name informally assigned in 1999 to a fossil from China in an article published in National Geographic magazine. The magazine claimed that the fossil was a "missing link" between birds and terrestrial theropod dinosaurs. Even prior to this publication there had been severe doubts about the fossil's authenticity. It led to a scandal when it was definitely proven to be a forgery through further scientific study. The forgery was constructed from rearranged pieces of real fossils from different species. Zhou et al. found that the head and upper body actually belong to a specimen of the primitive fossil bird Yanornis.[1] A 2002 study found that the tail belongs to a small winged dromaeosaur, Microraptor, named in 2000.[2] The legs and feet belong to an as yet unknown animal.[3][4]

The "Archaeoraptor" scandal has ongoing ramifications. The scandal brought attention to illegal fossil deals conducted in China. It also highlighted the need for close scientific scrutiny of purported "missing links" published in journals which are not peer-reviewed. The fossil scandal has been used by creationists to cast doubt on evolutionary theory. Although "Archaeoraptor" was a forgery, many true examples of feathered dinosaurs have been found and demonstrate the evolutionary connection between birds and other theropods.

Archaeoraptor" was unveiled at a press conference held by National Geographic magazine in October of 1999. At the same press conference also plans were announced to return the fossil to Chinese authorities, as it was illegally exported. In November of 1999 National Geographic featured the fossil in an article written by art editor Christopher Sloan. The article in general discussed feathered dinosaurs and the origin of birds. It claimed the fossil was "a missing link between terrestrial dinosaurs and birds that could actually fly" and informally referred to it as "Archaeoraptor liaoningensis", announcing it would later be formally named as such. This name means "ancient robber of Liaoning".[5] This drew immediate criticism from Storrs L. Olson, Curator of Birds at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Writing in Backbone, the newsletter of his museum, he denounced the publication of a scientific name in a popular journal, without peer review, as a "nightmare".[6]

On February 3, 2000, National Geographic issued a press release stating that the fossil could be a composite, and that an internal investigation had begun. In that same month Bill Allen, National Geographic editor, told Nature that he was "furious" to learn that the fossil might have been faked. In the March issue, in the forum section, a letter from Dr. Xu Xing pointed out that the tail section probably did not match the upper body. In October of 2000 National Geographic published the results of their investigation, in an article written by investigative journalist Lewis M. Simmons. They concluded that the fossil was a composite and that virtually everyone involved in the project had made some mistakes.[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeoraptor


Calaveras Skull

The Calaveras Skull was a hoax perpetrated by miners in Calaveras County, California.

On February 25, 1866, miners found a human skull in a mine, beneath a layer of lava, 130 feet (39 m) below the surface of the earth, which made it into the hands of Josiah Whitney, then the State Geologist of California as well as a Professor of Geology at Harvard University. A year before the skull came to his attention, Whitney had published his belief that humans, mastodons, and elephants had coexisted in California, and the skull only served as proof of his convictions. After careful study, he officially announced its discovery at a meeting of the California Academy of Science on July 16, 1866, declaring it evidence of the existence of Pliocene age man in North America, which would make it the oldest known record of humans on the continent.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Calaveras Skull.However, its authenticity was immediately challenged. In 1869 a San Francisco newspaper reported that a miner had told a minister that the skull was planted as a practical joke. Thomas Wilson of Harvard ran a fluorine analysis on it in 1879, with the results indicating it was of recent origin. It was so widely believed to be a hoax that Bret Harte famously wrote a satirical poem called "To the Pliocene Skull" in 1899.

Nevertheless, Whitney did not waver in his belief that it was genuine. His successor at Harvard, F.W. Putnam also believed it to be real. By 1901 Putnam was determined to discover the truth and he headed to California. While there, he heard a story that in 1865, one of a number of Indian skulls had been dug up from a nearby burial site and planted in the mine specifically for miners to find. However, Putnam still declined to declare the skull a fake, instead conceding, "It may be impossible ever to determine to the satisfaction of the archaeologist the place where the skull was actually found."

To further complicate the issue, careful comparison of the skull with descriptions of it at the time of its discovery revealed that the skull Whitney had in his possession was not the one originally found.

However, J.M. Boutwell, investigating in 1911, was told by one of the participants in the discovery that the whole thing was indeed a hoax.

The Calaveras Skull continues to be cited by creationists as proof that paleontologists ignore evidence that doesn't fit their theories, although others have noted that the Calaveras Skull cannot be used as such.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calaveras_Skull


Cardiff Giant

The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous hoaxes in American history, was a 10-foot (3.0 m)-tall purported "petrified man" uncovered on October 16, 1869 by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. "Stub" Newell in Cardiff, New York. Both it and an unauthorized copy made by P.T. Barnum are still on display.

The Giant was the creation of a New York tobacconist named George Hull. Hull, an atheist, decided to create the giant after an argument with a fundamentalist minister named Mr. Turk about the passage in Genesis 6:4 that there were giants who once lived on earth.

The idea of a petrified man did not originate with Hull, however. In 1858 the newspaper Alta California had published a bogus letter that claimed that a prospector had been petrified when he had drunk a liquid within a geode. Some other newspapers had also published stories of supposedly petrified people.

Hull hired men to carve out a 10-foot (3.0 m) long, 4.5-inch block of gypsum in Fort Dodge, Iowa, telling them it was intended for a monument to Abraham Lincoln in New York. He shipped the block to Chicago, where he hired a German stonecutter to carve it into the likeness of a man and swore him to secrecy. Various stains and acids were used to make the giant appear to be old and weathered, and the giant's surface was beaten with steel knitting needles embedded in a board to simulate pores. Then Hull transported the giant by rail to the farm of William Newell, his cousin, in November 1868. He had by then spent $2,600 on the hoax.

When the giant had been buried for a year, Newell hired two men, Gideon Emmons and Henry Nichols, ostensibly to dig a well. When they found the Giant, one of them has been attributed to saying "I declare, some old Indian has been buried here!".

Newell set up a tent over the giant and charged 25 cents for people who wanted to see it. Two days later he increased the price to 50 cents.

Archaeological scholars pronounced the giant a fake, and some geologists even noticed that there was no good reason to try to dig a well in the exact spot the giant had been found. Some Christian fundamentalists and preachers, however, defended its legitimacy.[1]

Eventually Hull sold his part-interest for $37,500 to a syndicate of five men headed by David Hannum. They moved it to Syracuse, New York for exhibition.

The giant drew such crowds that showman P.T. Barnum offered $60,000 for a three-month lease of it (in his memoirs he said he wanted to buy it). When the syndicate turned him down he hired a man to covertly model the giant's shape in wax and create a plaster replica. He put his giant on display in New York, claiming that his was the real giant and the Cardiff Giant was a fake.

As the newspapers reported Barnum's version of the story, David Hannum was quoted as saying, "There's a sucker born every minute" in reference to the suckers paying to see Barnum's giant. Over time, the quotation has been misattributed to P.T. Barnum himself.

Hannum sued Barnum, but the judge told him to get his giant to swear on his own genuineness in court if he wanted a favorable injunction.

Scholars also criticized the giant. Yale palaeontologist Othniel C. Marsh called it "a most decided humbug". On December 10, Hull confessed to the press.

On February 2, 1870 both giants were revealed as fakes in court. The judge ruled that Barnum could not be sued for calling a fake giant a fake

The Cardiff Giant has inspired a number of similar hoaxes.

In 1876 The Solid Muldoon emerged in Beulah, Colorado and was exhibited at 50 cents a ticket. There was also a rumor that Barnum had offered to buy it for $20,000. One employer later revealed that this was also a creation of George Hull, aided by Willian Conant. The Solid Muldoon was made of clay, ground bones, meat, rock dust and plaster.
In 1877, the owner of Taughannock House hotel on Lake Cayuga, New York, hired men to create a fake petrified man and place it where the workers that were expanding the hotel would dig it up. One of the men who had buried the giant later revealed the truth when drunk.

In 1892 Jefferson "Soapy" Smith, de facto ruler of the town of Creede, Colorado, purchased a petrified man, for $3,000 and exhibited it for 10 cents a peek. Soapy's profits did not come from displaying "McGinty," as he named it, but rather from distractions, like the shell game set up to entertain the crowds as they waited in line. He also profited by selling interests in the exhibition. This was a real human body, intentionally injected with chemicals for preservation and petrification. Soapy displayed McGinty from 1892 to 1895 throughout Colorado and the northwest United States.
In 1899 a petrified man found in Fort Benton, Montana was "identified" as US Civil War General Thomas Francis Meagher. Meagher had drowned in the Missouri River two years previously. The petrified man was transported to New York for exhibition.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Giant


Eoörnis pterovelox gobiensis

Eoörnis pterovelox gobiensis is a fictional bird, a humorous hoax by Lester W. Sharp, professor of botany, Cornell University, United States.

It was initially a short talk presented together with a graduate student, Cuthbert Fraser, about the most unusual bird from the Gobi Desert, called woofen-poof by the local populace. [1][2] (Compare "woofen-poof" to Whiffenpoof and WFF 'N PROOF.) Eventually it grew into a 34-page monograph signed by an Augustus C. Fotheringham, Sc.D. (Cantab.), F.R.G.S., printed by "The Buighleigh Press" in 1928, full of illustrated detail of anatomy, physiology, ecology, evolution, and historical references, complete with Cro-Magnon cave paintings — all inspired by a car mascot of a pelican.[3] For example, Pterovelox "is perhaps most frequently observed in a peculiar resting position — legs straight out behind with the feet on the rock, tree branch or other object, the body being supported by continuous vibration of wings".[4]

The monograph has later been reprinted several times in the form of a Ph.D. thesis.[4]

The peculiarities of the bird's mating were even unwittingly quoted in a eugenics article on consanguineous marriages in 1934: "A new, and recently authenticated, case of naturally determined incest, appears to have been discovered by the British Museum Expedition to the Gobi Desert in 1929, when a bird, the Eoörnis pterovelox gobiensis, was found, which hatches twins at each birth, a male and a female, and these same individuals later mate and are monogamous."[5]

Harriet Creighton recalls her witnessing how the woofen-poof hoax backfired on the hoaxer himself. In her presence, Professor Sharp was reading with disbelief a review on "Eoörnis..." published in The Quarterly Review of Biology (Pearl 1930, reprinted in 1976[2]) and was truly under the impression that the reviewer was hoaxed until he reached the end, which made clear that the review was on par with the reviewed article.[6]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eoörnis_Pterovelox_Gobiensis

The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus was an internet hoax created in 1998 by Lyle Zapato.[1] This fictitious endangered species of cephalopod was given the Latin name "Octopus paxarbolis" (which means, roughly, "Pacific tree octopus"). It was purported to be able to live both on land and in water, and was said to live in the Olympic National Forest and nearby rivers, spawning in water where eggs are laid. Its major predator was said to be the Sasquatch.

The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus website is among a number of sites commonly used in Internet literacy classes in schools, although it was not created for that purpose. Despite the falsehoods shown on the site, such as its support by "GreenPeas.org," the mentioning of other hoax species such as the Rock Nest Monster, the mountain walrus,[2] and its affiliation with People for the Ethical Treatment of Pumpkins (P.E.T.PU.) (mixed with links to pages about real species and organizations), 24 of 25 students involved in one well-publicized test believed the content.[3][4]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Northwest_tree_octopus

 

[mhamzah]

The spaghetti tree

In 1957, the BBC show Panorama broadcast a programme about the spaghetti tree in Switzerland. It showed a family harvesting pasta that hung from the branches of the tree.

After watching the programme, hundreds of people phoned in asking how they could grow their own tree. Alas, it was an April Fools' Day joke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=SyUvNnmFtgI

 

[alhamdullilah]

"Dihydrogen Monoxide" "Many people have signed petitions urging the government to ban dihydrogen monoxide".

I haven't laughed that hard for awhile, subhanallah. How lack of knowledge can make us look like fools. And those people that got spurred on by the media, brainwashed, man i'm still laughing even though its somewhat sad.