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Forging a Head: The Upside of Scientific Hoaxes
An anonymous reader writes "In a very funny piece over at Science Careers (published by the journal Science), scientist-comedian Adam Ruben suggests that a lot of good can come from a well-intentioned hoax. 'Hoaxes have infiltrated science for centuries,' Ruben writes, 'from fake fossils (Piltdown Man, archaeoraptor, Calaveras skull) to fake medical conditions (cello scrotum, the disappearing blonde gene) to fake animals (Ompax spatuloides, Pacific Northwest tree octopus, Labradoodle).' In contrast to fraud, Ruben argues, such hoaxes do a great service to science by illustrating 'failures of our most important tool: our skepticism.'"
While it's true that we need one of these every so often to remind us of the need for scientific rigor, it also does great damage to science for many. e.g. Climategate gave ammo for global warming deniers, piltdown man gave more credence to creationists, etc.
The Moon landings is my favorite. A hoax demonstrating against something that really DID happen. How meta is that?
Oh and the Creationist hoax, obv.
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beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his mind he dreams himself your master
I guess the biggest failure is not skepticism, but failing to recognize a hoax. There's an important difference.
Most skeptics reject everything outright (instead of "ok, let's wait for more evidence"). This is also bad. With a hoax the answer is usually dancing in front of you.
Remember, the platypus was considered a hoax for a long period of time. The Gorilla was also considered in the same league as 'Bigfoot" once
From TFA "between one-quarter and one-half of the students voted to regulate or ban outright the scary-sounding DHMO.These were college students"
Really, THINK "Di - Hydrogen Mono-Oxyde" "two hydrogen oxide", gee where have I seen this...
how long until