Most Popular Scientific Hoaxes and Gaffes
Science is not always accurate, and the scientists often make mistakes. They are only humans, and over the course of history they have made lots of mistakes over the time. These are the most popular science hoaxes.
Horace Miner published a paper in 1956 in which he wrote about the Nacirema tribe, a group of North American Natives. Apparently this tribe liked to perform very peculiar rituals such as cutting their faces with very sharp instruments and inserting bungles of hair into their mouths. As you probably have guessed, this was a hoax, as the tribe did not exist; in fact the name of the tribe is the word “American” spelled backwards.
The natural blondes are the subject of many jokes, people often making fun of them because of the fact that they are not quite as smart as the other women who have a different hair color. Each year, new researches appear, stating that the natural blondes are on the verge of extinction, causing panic amongst the people, as they fear that they will not have any other joke subjects. The biggest hoax or more precisely gaffe was made in 2002, when BBC and CNN presented a World Health Organization report which stated that blonds would disappear within 200 years. They stated that the color of the hair was dictated by a recessive gene, which apparently started to fade away. The World Health Organization stated that they never made such a study.
Brass Eye conducted an “investigative report” on a street drug they invented called “cake”. In case you did not know, Brass Eye is a British fake news show. In the show they claimed that cake affected an area of the brain called “Shatner’s Bassoon.” The members of the media started their war on cake, and the perils of the drug reached the parliament as well. Talk about misinformation.
One of the most famous scientific hoaxes was the alien autopsy which was performed in the 90s. It has been said that the film which presented an autopsy performed of an alien is real, and that the alien is none other than one of the inexperienced pilots that crashed their flying saucer in Roswell. English cameraman Ray Santilli was the owner of the footage, and he managed to convince Fox to broadcast a portion of it. He admitted in 2006 that everything was a hoax. The brain of the alien was actually sheep brains and raspberry jam.
The Turk was one of the greatest robots ever invented. Or at least that’s what the people used to believe. The Turk was a chess genius, and it was impossible to beat it. He appeared in the 1770s and as you can imagine, the people were more credulous back then. They were amazed by the fact that a robot could play chess, and that it could do it in such a great manner. It didn’t, as the robot was a professional chess player dressed as a robot.
It seems that the scientists would be willing to do lots of crazy things in order to create the perfect hoax. It was announced that they found the bones of a mermaid, and the people gathered to the P.T. Barnum’s museum in order to see it. It was a strange creature, as it had the size of a big rat, having a tail of a fish, and the front body was similar to the one of a human. In reality, the creature was a fish and an ape sewn together.
Mary Toft was one of the greatest sources of mystery, as she announced the doctors that she gave birth to 16 rabbits. The problem was that the doctors believed her, which should give you a clue about how well prepared where the doctors of that period. King George’s surgeon wrote a very big paper about the way in which she was able to deliver the baby rabbits. It is said that the news made such a splash that the people refused to eat rabbit, believing that there is some sort of connection between them and the humans. Needles to say, when it was revealed that everything was a hoax, the medical community suffered lots of embarrassment.
El Chupacabra is one of the most famous fictional creatures of Mexico and of South America. It is like the Bigfoot of the Americans, Dracula of the Romanians, the Nessie of the Scots, and so on. It is said that the beast has red eyes and that it likes to prey on goats. Just like in the case of all the other fictional monsters, many people have claimed that they have encountered it, some even providing pictures which would be able to back up their claims. One of the most famous pictures of El Chupacabra is actually the picture of a hairless wolf.
National Geographic made one of the biggest mistakes in 1999, when they stated that the archaeoraptor, is the missing link which connects the dinosaurs to the birds. Apparently the fossil was found in China, and it managed to puzzle the entire archaeological community. As you can imagine, everything was a hoax. The fossil was made out of real bones, but they were rearranged in such a manner by an evil mastermind. Just kidding about the last part, but it makes you wonder how far are some people willing to go in order to become famous.
Charles Dawson claimed in 1912 that he found some very interesting bones in a gravel pit and that started the legend of the Piltodown Man. A paleontologist from the British Museum managed to assemble the bones together, and he stated that he found the missing link between the humans and the apes. It seems that they always manage to find various types of missing links. Just like in the case of the missing link between the dinosaurs and the birds, and the mermaid, the Piltodown Man was a hoax. They discovered that 40 years later, when he admitted that everything was a hoax.
