scientific hoaxes

[Paul DiFilippo]

A couple of famous hoaxes spring to mind (fuzzily, fuzzily, but
with enough data for those who really desire to track them down).
The first involved actual deception:  "the case of the midwife
toad" (book by Koestler?), in which, as I recall, spots were 
actually painted on a hapless amphibian to justify theory.  Second
is the French championing of N rays (R rays?), a supposed 
analogue of then-cutting-edge X Rays.  The whole story was retold
in SCINTIFIC AMERICAN a year or six ago.  The theory collapsed
in the following manner:  French scientists were demonstrating
their new rays in a darkened room when a visting US or Brit 
scientists secretly nipped an integral piece of their apparatus
right out from under their noses before the demo began, during which
the expected results were "observed", despite the non-functioning
equipment!
Would you buy a used quark from any of these guys?

--
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"I have almost nothing in common with myself"--Franz Kafka
"I do the best imitation of myself."  Ben Folds Five