北京时间10月29日消息，据英国《新科学家》杂志报道，最近一期《新科学家》杂志对历史上出现的诸多科学骗局进行了一一回顾，其中包括马修·古德曼(Matthew Goodman)在其大作《太阳与月球》中讲述的1835年上演的所谓“月球骗局”。

 

事实上，科学史上还有许多骗局，这些骗局可谓花样繁多，不乏创意。当然了，科学界也曾出现过一些较为严重的欺诈事件，例如最近的干细胞研究人员承认伪造数据，韩国科学家令全世界一片哗然的克隆丑闻。但下列七个骗局情况并没有那么“严重”：

 

 

 

1912年，律师兼业余古生物学家查尔斯·道森(Charles Dawson)在英国苏塞克斯郡发现了所谓的皮尔当人化石，似乎是半人半猿的头骨和颚骨。这一发现被誉为猿和人类之间进化链条中缺少的一环。1953年，皮尔当人化石最终被证明是伪造的。实际上，这个头骨不过是用一名中世纪人的头盖骨和一只猩猩的颚骨拼凑的。

 

 

 

1869年，有人在纽约加的夫的一个小农场挖掘出一个身高10英尺(约合3米)的石化人，也就是大名鼎鼎的“加的夫巨人”。发现石化人的消息迅速成为媒体关注焦点，很多美国人慕名而来一探究竟。1870年初，加的夫巨人的真相最终大白于天下，原来是纽约人乔治·赫尔(George Hull)花钱雇人用石头雕成的杰作。

 

 

 

1725年，约翰·柏林格(Johann Beringer)医生被在德国维尔茨堡发现的神秘化石深深震惊。这些化石向人们描绘了一幅幅令人难于置信的画面，其中包括鸟类、蜜蜂、蜗牛、蜥蜴、带花植物、交配的青蛙以及进食的昆虫，甚至连彗星、卫星和恒星也没放过。不幸的柏林格最终成为这场精心制造的骗局的受害者，这些所谓的奇特化石是他心怀妒嫉的同事暗地里偷偷埋入地下的。

 

但可悲的是，柏林格早已被这些化石钩住了魂魄，甚至还出版一本书，向全世界描述这些冒牌货。有传闻说，柏林格也意识到自己上当受骗，并试图全部买下他尚未售出的著作。除了上文提到的外，考古学界还曾出现过很多化石造假事件，例如著名的“蟾蜍坟墓”以及包裹苍蝇的琥珀化石。

 

 

 

1996年，美国物理学家艾伦·索卡尔(Alan Sokal)向《社会文本》杂志递交了一篇用毫无疑义的术语伪装的文章，声称量子引力是一种社会和语言建构。令人意想不到的是，就在《社会文本》刊登这篇文章时，索卡尔却主动“自首”，承认是一场骗局。当时，这一事件引发了有关索卡尔恶作剧道德性问题的一场大讨论。

 

 

 

1957年，英国广播公司栏目《Panorama》让人们认识了瑞士的一种长意大利面的树，画面中的一户人家正在采摘挂在树枝上的意大利面。在观看了这档节目之后，数百人纷纷打电话询问这种树的种植方法，但最终结果却让他们失望，这不过是献给愚人节的一个笑话。

 

 

 

1783年，《伦敦杂志》登载了一名荷兰外科医生的报告。这名医生声称在爪哇岛发现一种毒性极强的树，能够杀死15英里(约合20公里)半径内的一切生物。见血封喉树的传奇故事就此拉开序幕。伊拉兹马斯·达尔文(Erasmus Darwin)甚至还在1791年的一首诗中提到这种树。他在这首诗的注释中写道：“爪哇岛有一种毒树，它的毒性让这个国家人口减少……12或14英里范围内的大地寸草不生、一片荒芜，丛生的岩石间到处是人和动物的骨架，这种可怕的场景已然超出诗人或者画家的想象。”实际上，我们确实可以在印度尼西亚找到所谓的见血封喉树，但它的毒性绝不像传说中的那么可怕。这种树的树浆含有一种强大毒素，一般被用在箭头上。

 

 

 

18世纪的医生约翰·海因里希·科奥森(Johann Heinrich Cohausen)撰写了一篇有关延寿的论文，并取名为“赫米普斯再生”。根据他提出的延寿秘方，人们可以用瓶子收集年轻女子的呼吸，并依此炼制长生不老药。事实上，科奥森本人也在论文的最后几页承认，这只是一种讽刺，任何容易上当的读者都不会被蒙在鼓里太久。

Seven of the greatest scientific hoaxes

For this week's issue of New Scientist I edited a review of The Sun and the Moon by Matthew Goodman, which tells the story of the great moon hoax of 1835. Read the review here.

This got me thinking about other great scientific hoaxes in the past. After doing a bit of digging, I was amazed by how many there were – and at the variety and creativity of the hoaxes. Here are a few of the best.

Of course, there are serious cases of scientific fraud, such as the stem cell researchers recently found guilty of falsifying data and the South Korean cloning fraud. The following stories, however, are not so serious.

Piltdown Man

In 1912, solicitor and amateur palaeontologist Charles Dawson "found" the Piltdown fossils, a skull and jawbone that appeared to be half-man half-ape, in Sussex. They were hailed as the evolutionary "missing link" between apes and humans.

It was over 40 years later, in 1953, that the fossil was exposed as a fake. In fact, the skull was constructed from a medieval human cranium attached to the jaw of an orang-utan.

The Cardiff Giant

A ten-foot "petrified man" was dug up on a small farm in Cardiff, New York, in October 1869. The "Cardiff Giant" became a huge news story and many Americans travelled to see it.

Early in 1870, it was revealed as a fake, the creation of New Yorker George Hull, who had paid for it to be carved out of stone.

Beringer's fraudulent fossils

Physician Johann Beringer was amazed when he was presented with fossils "found" in Wurzburg, Germany, in 1725, which depicted incredible scenes: the forms of birds, bees, snails, lizards, plants with flowers, frogs mating and insects feeding, not to mention comets, moons and suns.

It turned out that he was the victim of an elaborate plot: envious colleagues of Beringer had planted the fossils.

Unfortunately, Beringer fell for it hook, line and sinker, and even published a book to tell the world about the fossils. Rumour has it that once Beringer realised the hoax, he tried to buy up any unsold copies of his book. (See Johann Beringer and the fraudulent fossils)

There are many more examples of fossil fraud, such as the fake "entombed toad" and the fake fossil fly in amber.

The Sokal hoax

In 1996, American physicist Alan Sokal submitted a paper loaded with nonsensical jargon to the journal Social Text, in which he argued that quantum gravity is a social and linguistic construct. (Read Sokal's paper)

When the journal published it, Sokal revealed that the paper was in fact a spoof. The incident triggered a storm of debate about the ethics of Sokal's prank.

The spaghetti tree

In 1957, the BBC show Panorama broadcast a programme about the spaghetti tree in Switzerland. It showed a family harvesting pasta that hung from the branches of the tree.

After watching the programme, hundreds of people phoned in asking how they could grow their own tree. Alas, it was an April Fools' Day joke.

Watch the BBC's spaghetti tree footage

The Upas tree

An account was published in the London Magazine in 1783 by a Dutch surgeon named Foersch (his initials were variously given as NP and JN). It claimed the existence of a tree on the island of Java so poisonous that it killed everything within a 15-mile radius.

Read the original account (scroll down to find it)

This was the start of a legend. Even Erasmus Darwin wrote about it in a poem in 1791. A note to the poem read, "There is a poison-tree in the island of Java, which is said by its effluvia to have depopulated the country... in a district of 12 or 14 miles round it, the face of the earth is quite barren and rocky, intermixed only with the skeletons of men and animals; affording a scene of melancholy beyond what poets have described or painters delineated."

You really can find the Upas tree in Indonesia. Though not as potent as legend would have it, the latex of the tree does contain a powerful toxin, which was traditionally used on arrow points.

Read more about the Upas tree (PDF: go to page 8)

The secret of immortality

Johann Heinrich Cohausen, an 18th-century physician, wrote a treatise on the prolongation of life, entitled Hermippus redivivus. Amongst other secrets of longevity, it claimed that life could be prolonged by taking an elixir produced by collecting the breath of young women in bottles.

Actually, Cohausen admitted in the last few pages of the work that it was a satire, so any gullible readers wouldn't have been duped for too long