Baron Munchausen, the famous adventurer
Anyway, here is the link:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/25/from-piltdown-man-to-anti-vaxxers-what-sciences-worst-hoaxes-can-teach-us
From Piltdown Man to anti-vaxxers ... What science’s worst hoaxes can teach us
by Robin McKie25 Feb 2023
It took decades before the true nature of Britain’s greatest scientific fraud, Piltdown Man, was revealed. It’s an extraordinary story that will be outlined at the meeting by palaeontologist Prof Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum.
The shards of skull that were unearthed in a gravel pit at Piltdown in East Sussex in 1912 were interpreted as being the remains of a million-year-old apeman, an individual who possessed a large brain but primitive jawbone and teeth. It was exactly what British scientists were seeking, said Stringer.
“A century ago, French archaeologists had discovered Cro-Magnons while the Germans had their Neanderthals. Britain had nothing – until Piltdown Man appeared.
“Then we had our own fossil rival – except, of course, it was a forgery made up of the braincase of a modern human being and the jawbone of an orangutan. It took scientists 40 years to prove this.
“At the time of its discovery, there was a huge demand for Britain to have its own missing link, and a lot of experts who should have known better lowered their guard.
“It is a lesson for all of us. When something seems too good to be true, it probably is too good to be the real thing.”
As to the perpetrator, most scientists, Stringer included, now believe local archaeologist Charles Dawson – the man who had first found the pieces of skull – was responsible for fabricating the find. He was desperate to become a fellow of the Royal Society and was listed as a possible candidate for election. The Piltdown skull would be his ticket to scientific fame, he hoped. However, he died in 1916, not long after making his “discovery”.
Dawson, though, would not have been the first fraudster or crook to have been made a fellow of the society if he had succeeded.
“Indeed, it is surprising, when you start looking, how many eminent scientists and fellows of the Royal Society have ended up in jail,” said Keith Moore. “There is a long history of this kind of thing here.”
Examples go back to the founding of the Royal Society, though some were imprisoned for less than nefarious reasons.
German theologian Henry Oldenburg, its first secretary and one of the originators of the idea of peer review was imprisoned in the Tower of London as a suspected spy in 1667 during the second Anglo-Dutch war. Crystallographer Kathleen Lonsdale was briefly jailed for her pacifist views during the second world war.
But the strangest of all these characters was Rudolf Erich Raspe, who will be the focus of a talk by Moore at Thursday’s meeting.
Raspe, a German, was elected to the society in the 18th century for his work on geology but was eventually ejected for his “divers frauds and gross breaches of trust”.
“Part of the problem was that in those days, scientists had no income other than private means and that sometimes led them on to the path of temptation,” said Moore.
Raspe sought other sources of income and in due course turned to fiction. “He wrote the earliest known version of the stories of Baron Munchausen, which have never been out of print since, though he made no money from them himself,” added Moore.
The crucial point is that science can only operate if it can be sure that the information it is presented with is correct, said Moore.
“That is why the integrity of its fellows was so important to the society. It was our way of ensuring information and data were coming from a reliable source. And of course, it is fun to tell people there has been a long history of scientists fighting against fraud and occasionally losing out.
“It is also important to understand these issues because we now have new problems relating to the internet, deepfaking and that kind of stuff. People have to be careful about the sources of the information that they are relying on. That has always been a problem.”
Raspe and Baron Munchausen…….
http://authorscalendar.info/munchh.htm
Rudolf Erich Raspe (1737-1794)
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Chris Stringer's points about hoaxes are interesting -- especially the pressure within every nation to make discoveries that enhance national pride ("Our Neolithic tribes were smarter than yours, and you might as well admit it.......") and within every academic community to enhance reputations and maybe attract notoriety. We have discussed before the "political context" in the aftermath of the First World War that led HH Thomas to promote his bluestone transport theory, and which led others to accept it without much serious scrutiny. So how much has changed in the last century? Not much. English Heritage, with the guaranteed support of much of the media, still promotes Stonehenge as one of the wonders of the world, and unquestioningly supports much of the mythology surrounding the bluestones in the pretence that it is talking about hard facts. As we all know, it seems desperate to avoid any suggestion that anything is disputed -- presumably in the belief that people like certainty and reassurance and that they cannot cope with dissent and disagreement. So in the absence of proper scrutiny, it is quite easy for a hoax to be perpetrated by those who seek wealth and fame -- and the longer the hoax survives, the more difficult it becomes for EH to turn around and admit that as an organization it has been conned.......
And as far as the research practitioners are concerned, I don't suppose that the pursuit of wealth is much of a factor, but for some people the need for media attention and notoriety has long since trumped academic propriety and scientific reliability. As I have said over and again on this blog, appalling papers that should never have seen the light of day have been peer-reviewed and published, and indeed celebrated in carefully manipulated media campaigns, because nobody much could be bothered to read them properly or to check out the details of what was being described out in the field. So geologists who should have stuck to bluestone provenancing work have been sucked into the business of promoting bluestone quarries, human transport methods and lost "giant stone circles". And as many as twenty senior archaeologists have been sucked into the development of a wild and fantastical narrative that is now collapsing around their ears.
As Chris Stringer says: ".........a lot of experts who should have known better lowered their guard. It is a lesson for all of us. When something seems too good to be true, it probably is too good to be the real thing...............
And as Keith Moore says: "........it is surprising, when you start looking, how many eminent scientists and fellows of the Royal Society have ended up in jail. There is a long history of this kind of thing..........”
Now there's a thought......
But let's be reassured by the thought that no hoax survives for ever.......
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2010/03/two-great-hoaxes-piltdown-skull-and.html
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2010/02/did-hh-thomas-cook-books.html
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2013/03/is-bluestone-myth-based-on-scientific.html
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2010/03/herbert-thomas-and-charles-dawson.html
2 comments:
"Ain't nothing like the real thing" by Marvin Gaye [who wasn't!] and Tammy Terrell, was a big soul hit in the 1970s. But, on face value folks, its title can be taken two different ways, however the song and its singers tried, 'cus the dreaded double negative was there!!
Mike Pitts' Facebook site has just been the recipient from myself of this Post. Mike says he hardly ever looks at it....however, maybe some of his multitude of other Friends will read and reflect.
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