Earth swells like a ball - Deception in science (Term 2)

1. Term 1: Illusion and trick 40 years

Those are mistakes that come from an individual's unhealthy motivation. But it has existed for a short time in the scientific community and even caused negative consequences.

Earth doubled in volume

The globe model swells up as explained by Hugh Owen

' Earth is bulging and we still don't know why, ' which is a shocking title in New Scientist magazine on November 22, 1984. It is a theory published by paleontologist Hugh Owen of the British Museum. Owen developed his theory to find a way to recreate the Pangée continent, the Earth's only primitive continent before being split into existing continents.

According to him, 225 million years ago, people could travel the world by road! Earlier in 1912, Alfred Wegener proved that continents are now apart from each other over time. That phenomenon created 3.5km2 of new 'ground' at the bottom of the oceans.

But Owen later discovered that in some places on the globe triangular bays between continental plates do not correspond to the ocean floor. The erosion hypothesis cannot explain those 'holes'. So he hypothesized that the globe had swelled.

He even suggested that the planet has doubled in volume since the continent of Pangée. To illustrate his point, Owen introduced a 12,700 km diameter globe model, which is 20% less than the current diameter to explain why continental plates can stick together. .

Why can the earth bulge? Owen argued that the part of the globe is a hot core like an atomic bomb, which causes the planet to swell like a balloon, cracking the earth's crust. Add to that the meteorite that is constantly shooting into the globe promotes the separation of the continental plates.

That explanation has been judged by the geophysicists as "stupid" because the meteorite hit the Earth not so much and did not "disguise" anything compared to the massive volume of Earth. Not to mention the gravity principle, the volume bulge should have led to a reduction in the diameter of the globe. Regarding triangular gulf areas that are not compatible with the ocean floor, the answer is simple: it is a lack of homogeneity of the Earth's array that causes it to be deformed when separated at some locations.

But so far there are still a few scientists who have defended Owen's thesis and given new assumptions that explain this point.

The "memory of water"

On June 30, 1988, the science journal Nature launched a shockwave in the research world: the water was able to remember molecules of liquids that had been previously dissolved, even when the molecule is no longer available. present. Heavenly people believe because the author of the article is a famous French researcher. Jacques Benveniste is a doctor, biologist, director of a research unit at Inserm (National Institute of Health and Medical Research).

His discovery is seen as a savior for physicians in homeopathic therapy because if water is mixed to a saturated level that works, it will explain the mechanism of action of micro-drugs. homeopathy. Alfred Spira, an eminent researcher at Inserm, exacerbated Benveniste's discovery when claiming the discovery was 'the most significant since Newton's discovery' and he called on real world research. Show additional studies.

But later tests by other groups did not reach the results that Benveniste announced. It was further discovered that studies by the Benveniste group were directly funded by the Boiron Pharmaceutical Company, which specializes in homeopathic medicine. And the same company paid for a peer-reviewed study by the journal Nature.

The "memory of the country" quickly sank and was remembered as a sad cheating experience. Benveniste's team disintegrated in 1993. The Nature journal later published research results in contrast to Benveniste's work, but the journal did not draw any right or wrong conclusions.

Department of genetic intelligence

Data on twins were forged in Cyril Burt's study

This case is also associated with the name of a world-class scientist. Cyril Burt, an adviser to the British Ministry of Education, was once considered one of the pioneers of psychological research until his death in 1971.

His theory is associated with a common concept in society: intelligence is inherited and is not dependent on the environment or education. To prove, he studied twins with eggs (the same genome) but was raised in a separate family. In 1943, he announced the first series of results about 156 twins, of which 15 couples live together without their families.

Three other studies continued in 1955, 1958 and 1966 with more twins. The last study had a sample of up to 53 pairs of identical eggs but was nourished separately from the very beginning. All these studies are aimed at proving that genetics is the most important factor in determining human ability to grow up.

Because of his position in the Ministry of Education, Mr. Burt has a significant influence in education in the UK. After his research, people were recruited to enroll students in specialized schools through IQ tests and sometimes even this choice applies to the 11-year age group. Some psychologists also take advantage of these Burt's research results to justify racist arguments. They have almost publicly stated that the poor living situation of some minority communities is due to their ethnicity, which is related to genetics.

It was not until Burt died that many experts dared to review his research. Leon J. Kamin, professor of psychology at Princeton, discovered surprising coincidences in Burt's series of statistics. Perfectly random randomness in scientific research. Kamin concluded immediately that Burt had forged data so that they could match the results he wanted.

By 1976, the Sunday Times correspondent Olivier Gillie found more evident evidence. First, Burt's two main female partners have published articles in Burt's professional magazine, The British Journal of Satistical Psychology, to prove Burt's hypothesis never existed! Secondly, worse, many of the research twins are just people who are molded according to the team's wishes or rather Burt; figures of parents of these couples' IQs in the report are of course fake.

Actually, only 15 twins are involved in Burt's research. And yet, because of the above stories, people still doubt that Burt stole other authors' research, modified the results of some studies (by other authors) published in the journal. of him to match the arguments about his genetic intelligence.

The Burt case then even had a national political stature when the Labor Party condemned the conservative party to adopt a policy of racism in education in the UK.

The other problem is to determine Cyril Burt's true motive in clinging to his wrong point. It is thought that he is too confident in his point of view so he seeks to prove its rightness at all costs and every means. Leslie Spencer Hearnshaw, who studied and wrote a portrait of Burt, revealed that at the end of his life he was deaf and sick.

More importantly, he showed signs of mental paranoia and proved very aggressive when he heard about those who rejected his research. Leslie also discovered that the 'two female partners' that Olivier Gillie turned over as mentioned above belonged to the group of 20 'virtual researchers' molded by Burt. Burt himself wrote research papers named after these people to defend his thesis. There is nothing left to comment on!

NGUYEN QUAN GENERAL

In science, there are conceptions that are circulated naturally, damaged in reality, exist in a long time.With the progress of day by day in the industry, today people have been able to review where is the real concept, what is mere mere misconception.

Next term: Truth and confusion in science