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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
 Posted - 02/20/2005 : 14:44:59
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From The Guardian comes this article, with the headline "History of modern man unravels as German scholar is exposed as fraud." We'll see where this goes...
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
 Posted - 02/20/2005 : 15:40:10 [Permalink]
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Looks like a fine example of science monitoring itself.
There are frauds in every walk of life, even the academic community.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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David Mc
Skeptic Friend
USA
63 Posts |
Posted - 02/20/2005 : 17:56:49 [Permalink]
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| Oh well. Keep diggin'. There are plenty of stuff still out there. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 02/20/2005 : 18:51:22 [Permalink]
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This isn't just a blow to stone-age anthropology, but to more modern history, too:The university is investigating how thousands of documents lodged in the anthropology department relating to the Nazis' gruesome scientific experiments in the 1930s were mysteriously shredded, allegedly under the professor's instructions.
They also discovered that some of the 12,000 skeletons stored in the department's "bone cellar" were missing their heads, apparently sold to friends of the professor in the US and sympathetic dentists. Also, this article has taught me something I missed about archeoraptor: it's known as the "Piltdown Turkey." That's funny. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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tomk80
SFN Regular
Netherlands
1278 Posts |
Posted - 02/21/2005 : 06:23:25 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dude
Looks like a fine example of science monitoring itself.
There are frauds in every walk of life, even the academic community.
I disagree. From the article, the fraud only came to light after the professor tried to sell some chimp skulls to the US. It seems that the administrators were monitoring science in this case. Had he not done this, his frauds might have gone undetected for much longer. |
Tom
`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'
-Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll- |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 02/21/2005 : 09:28:28 [Permalink]
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A great article. Isn't it odd how frauds and scoundrels are often so much more interesting than those who actually do honest work? It is why the midway at the circus and the county fairs are so popular.
I can't believe this charecter tried to peddle all of the chimp skulls. Must be, he's gotten stupid in his old age.
The dating fraud(s) are troubling, but interesting. I wonder what conclusions will be reached after the corrections are finished.
I further wonder which brave Creationists blew the whistle on the rascal. I don't recall it being mentioned...
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 02/21/2005 : 09:41:45 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by filthy
The dating fraud(s) are troubling, but interesting. I wonder what conclusions will be reached after the corrections are finished.
I'm not sure that it will actually do much. I'm not sure there was much to say about the possibilities raised by the fradulent dates besides speculation about how the two groups worked together. That there was fraud actually makes things much "neater" and more in line with what we'd expect. I think. (Speaking from a non-specialist with only a tangental knowledge of the topic...) |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 02/21/2005 : 13:26:35 [Permalink]
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quote:
I disagree. From the article, the fraud only came to light after the professor tried to sell some chimp skulls to the US.
From the article:
quote:
Prof Terberger said that he grew suspicious about the professor's work in 2001 after sending off the skull fragment to Oxford for tests.
Further tests revealed that all of the skulls dated by Prof Protsch were in reality far younger than he had claimed, prompting Prof Terberger and a British colleague, Martin Street, to write a scientific paper last year.
At the same time, German police began investigating the professor for fraud, following allegations that he had tried to sell the university's 278 chimpanzee skulls for $70,000 to a US dealer.
One scientist raising questions about things independent of the investigation about the guy trying to sell off the bones.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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