It is not uncommon for misinformation to infiltrate the scientific field, undermining the accuracy that the public relies on. While some hoaxes gain little spotlight, others can fool a nation, or even the entire world. So, in honor of April Fools’ Day, here are some scientific hoaxes that shook the world to its core.
The Piltdown man
In 1912 in Piltdown, England, amateur archeologist Charles Dawson alleged to have discovered the “missing link” in the evolutionary chain between humans and their primate ancestors. This link was a piece of a human-like skull that he found buried in gravel beds. Later that summer, Dawson discovered more fossils at the site, including a jawbone, more skull sections, and teeth. However, what initially seemed like a groundbreaking scientific discovery ultimately unraveled into one of the most infamous cases of scientific fraud.
The Piltdown Man captivated the imagination of scientists and the public alike. For decades, it was hailed as pivotal evidence supporting the theory of human evolution. It was hypothesized to have belonged to a human ancestor 500,000 years ago and was even presented at a Geological Society meeting as the “Eoanthropus dawsoni.”
However, as scientific scrutiny intensified over the years, cracks began to emerge in the story of the Piltdown Man. In 1953, after meticulous analysis, the truth came to light: the Piltdown Man was not the missing link it had been purported to be, but rather an elaborate hoax.
Investigation revealed that the skull was of modern human origin and had been deliberately combined with the altered jaw and teeth of an orangutan. To make the bones look aged, they were stained with an iron solution and chromic acid. There were also scratches on the teeth, evidence that they were filed down to make them look more human.
The reveal sent shockwaves through the scientific community, especially since it took 41 years for them to come to a definitive conclusion. The perpetrator of the Piltdown Man hoax is still unknown, but many believe it to be Charles Dawson himself, due to his involvement in previous archeological hoaxes.
The Cardiff Giant
George Hull was your common swindler. He cheated at cards, skirted tobacco tax laws, and burned down his own barns and cigar shops for the insurance money. But, in 1869, Hull would pull off one of his greatest tricks: the Cardiff Giant.
The Cardiff Giant is the petrified body of a 10-foot-tall man, found by workers in a well in Cardiff, New York. While many scientists were skeptical of its authenticity, it didn’t stop crowds from flocking to the spectacle. People in the town started gathering to view this supposed giant and soon the news spread to neighboring cities. “Stub” Newell, a cousin of Hull, set up a tent around the giant and started charging visitors 50 cents for admission.
Scientists were quick to reveal that the Cardiff Giant was not actually a mummy of a real-life giant, but simply a statue created from a slab of gypsum. Hull had purchased this slab in Fort Dodge, Iowa and hired sculptors to carve it into the 10-foot-tall giant. After this was done, he brought the statue and buried it in New York where it lay for one year before his cousin Newell hired workers to dig a well in that very spot. However, despite it being debunked, the Cardiff Giant continued to draw many curious and gullible visitors for years. It traveled through different cities and state fairs, drawing a slowly dwindling crowd as replicas of the giant popped up. Now, the 2,990 pound titan stands at the center of the Bruce Museum, a testament to the greatest hoax in American history.
And Hull’s motives? Well, after learning of a bible quote that suggested giants had once walked on Earth, he decided to play a practical joke on a priest by creating the Cardiff Giant.
The Archaeoraptor
In more recent years, the fake fossils of a creature named the “Archaeoraptor” were uncovered in China in the 1990s. It was deemed the supposed link between birds and dinosaurs, supporting the theory that birds are their last living descendants. Though the discovery of these fossils was never published in a scientific journal, the news found its way in a 1999 issue of National Geographic. However, on closer inspection, scientists discovered that the creature was actually a fusion of different dinosaur fossils. The tail and hind legs originated from the bones of a small dinosaur named the Microraptor zhaoianus, while the rest of the body came from the ancient bird Yanornis martini.
Once the Archeaoraptor was exposed as a hoax, it was believed that the fossils had been glued together by Chinese farmers in hopes to make money from its sale. National Geographic was forced to retract the discovery, one of their most humiliating moments. From then on, the Archeaoraptor became known as the Piltdown Man of dinosaur fossils.
The Mechanical Turk
In the late 18th century, an invention known as the Mechanical Turk, a chess-playing machine, captivated the European and American audiences. Created by Wolfgang von Kempelen, the Mechanical Turk appeared to be an autonomous automaton capable of outwitting human opponents on the chessboard. It was built to impress Maria Theresa, the empress of Austria-Hungary. In some respects, it appeared to be the closest invention to artificial intelligence that the world had seen at that time.
For two years, the Mechanical Turk toured Europe, attracting crowds eager to witness its extraordinary talents. It faced off against esteemed opponents and even Benjamin Franklin, the American ambassador in France at the time.
Kempelen died in 1804, and the Mechanical Turk was soon bought by German inventor Johann Maelzal who added features such as a voice box to the automaton and continued its tour around the world. Many people doubted the authenticity of the Turk, including a young Edgar Allen Poe, but none were able to prove it.
However, the secrets of the Mechanical Turk would slowly unravel. After Maelzal died, the machine was passed off to John Kearsley Mitchell before it was donated to a museum. In 1854, the museum caught on fire, taking the 84-year-old machine along with it. After, a series of essays were released by Mitchell’s son, Silas, exposing the mechanics behind the Mechanical Turk.
As it turns out, many of the people’s suspicions were correct. There had been a chess master hiding in the machine all along, controlling its movements from inside the cabinet. When the cabinet doors of the machine were opened by Kempelen and Maelzal to show to the crowd there was “no one inside”, the player would use a sliding seat to move out of view.
Although it was ultimately revealed as a hoax, the Mechanical Turk really was a remarkably innovative creation that piqued the interest of many individuals regarding the theoretical possibility of autonomous machines.
The disappearing blonde gene
In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) apparently published a report from German researchers that by 2202, people with blonde hair will become extinct. This news was spread by several reputable news sites, including BBC and The Sunday Times, but as it turns out, WHO never published or even received such a report.
This hoax is due to the misunderstanding of recessive traits in genes. Even though the allele for blonde hair is recessive, gene frequency is stable unless some evolutionary force is acting upon them, which is not the case for blonde hair. So, no worries! Blondes will be here to stay for the foreseeable future.
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