The Science Channel’s Top 10 Science Hoaxes

The Science Channel has a list of the Top 10 Science Hoaxes. I'm giving it a thumbs down, because it's a pretty feeble list. It's the kind of thing someone who didn't know much about science or hoaxes might put together by surfing the web for a few hours.

It starts off with Harold Miner's analysis of the Nacirema tribe at #10. This is a famous anthropological satire (Nacirema is American spelled backwards), but I wouldn't consider it a hoax, unless any comedy or fiction can count as a hoax.

El Chupacabra comes in at #3. (Should El Chupacabra even count as science?)

A better list was put together by Tim Radford and published in the Guardian back in 2003.

One of these days I need to write a Top 10 Science Hoaxes list of my own. I'll add it to my list of things to do.

Thanks to Bob for the link!

Science

Posted on Fri May 29, 2009


Comments

I'd be as likely to question whether el Chupacabras count as a hoax as much as whether it's science.
Posted by Yoyogod  on  Fri May 29, 2009  at  05:21 PM
Yeah, the list struck me as pretty lame too, Alex. I'm always surprised when journalists don't seem to know the difference between "straight" humor and a hoax.
Posted by Cranky Media Guy  on  Fri May 29, 2009  at  05:44 PM
Hi,

We have just added your latest post "The Science Channel
Posted by quba  on  Sat May 30, 2009  at  03:49 AM
Yeah, do it Alex, play off your whole expertise!
Posted by tosco  on  Sat May 30, 2009  at  05:53 AM
Also, the picture for #2 is wrong. It actually shows the Berlin Archaeopteryx, which is real. Here is a photo of the actual fake:
http://blogs.paleored.com/ernesto/ernesto.php?title=el_archaeoraptor&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Posted by Lars Dietz  on  Sun May 31, 2009  at  06:24 PM
At the risk of sounding "too eager" I vote that list of "Top 10 Science Hoaxes" as the number 1 on the "All Time Lame" list of lists of hoaxes.

More than just ordinary, the presentation stank and the lack of referencing speaks for itself.
Posted by Joel B1  on  Mon Jun 01, 2009  at  02:43 AM
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