13 of the Most Ridiculous Scientific Hoaxes in History
We’re conditioned to believe whatever scientists tell us, but anybody can put on a white lab coat and some thick glasses.
Published 1 day ago in Facepalm
We’re conditioned to believe whatever scientists tell us, but anybody can put on a white lab coat and some thick glasses.
From fake ancient fossils to spurious futuristic inventions, people have expected society to believe some pretty ridiculous things. And the funny thing is, society often does!
What bothers me is, why go to all the work of making a fake petrified giant or taxidermied mermaid when you know somebody is just going to find out it isn’t real? Why not spend your time on something productive, like inventing a submarine to find an actual mermaid?
Oh well, I guess that’s why these guys are the phony scientists, not me.
1
The Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer
The hotheaded naked ice borer was an April Fools joke created by Discover magazine in 1995. It supposedly used its blood vessels to heat the bony lump on its head to a high temperature, and then melted its way through ice with the heated appendage. Though it was pretty obviously a joke, many regarded the story as true, and the magazine received more mail for that article than any piece ever before.
2
William Mumler
A man named William Mumler gained renown in the mid-1800s for his apparent ability to capture ghosts on camera. People on the East Coast flocked to him for closure on their dead friends and family members, paying handsomely for the photos. Mumler manipulated the photos using stock images to fool his marks.
3
Fiji Mermaid
In 1842, a man supposedly named Dr. J. Griffin presented the New York City press with the body of a mermaid that was allegedly caught in the South Pacific. The Fiji Mermaid drew huge crowds, and Dr. Griffin gave lectures to a packed room on his theories of the existence of merpeople. Well, ‘Dr. Griffin’ was actually named Levi Lyman, an accomplice of famous fraudster P.T. Barnum, and the ‘mermaid’ was actually a monkey sewed to a fish.
6
Alien Autopsy
In 1995, a British man named Ray Santilli claimed he had acquired footage from a retired military cameraman of an alien autopsy taking place at Roswell in 1947 after the alleged spaceship crash there. While very few people believed him, Santilli stuck to his guns, only admitting the footage was faked in 2006. Even after confessing to the hoax, he claimed his footage was a reenactment of a real autopsy tape that he couldn’t release because it was in bad shape.
7
Piltdown Man
In 1912, an amateur archaeologist named Charles Dawson discovered a jawbone and fragments of a skull that he claimed belonged to the missing link between human and ape. In the 1950s, when scientists re-examined the bones, they discovered they were from an orangutan, stained with chemicals to appear old.
8
Perpetual Motion Machine
A man named Charles Redheffer claimed to have invented a perpetual motion machine in 1813. A skeptical mechanical engineer noticed a wobble in the machine and decided to investigate. He discovered the true mechanism of the machine’s motion– an old man in the attic, turning a crank and eating a piece of bread.
9
Tempted by the Devil
In 1981, a Japanese archaeologist named Shinichi Fujimara discovered 40,000 year old stoneware, the oldest artifacts ever found in Japan. Then, in 2000, he discovered 600,000 year old stoneware, which would have been the oldest signs of human life ever discovered. Then, a Japanese newspaper published photos of Fujimara planting the artifacts for himself to find. He confessed and claimed that he had been “possessed by an uncontrollable urge” and “tempted by the devil.”
10
Mary Toft
In 1726, a woman named Mary Toft became the center of attention when she claimed to have given birth to dozens of dead rabbits and other animals. She became a minor celebrity. The hoax was uncovered when somebody caught a servant trying to sneak a rabbit into Mary’s room. She was doing something we’d rather not mention in order to give birth to the rabbits.
12
Cardiff Giant
The Cardiff Giant was a ten-foot-tall stone man dug out of the ground on a farm in Cardiff, New York. Some theorized it was an ancient statue, while others believed it to be a petrified giant from biblical times. In the end, it turned out to be a hoax carved and planted in the ground by a tobacconist named George Hull.
13
Lying Stones
In 1725, Johann Behringer, the chair of natural history at a Bavarian university, was brought several carved stones by a few of his students. The stones were carved with various depictions of animals and Hebrew letters. Behringer believed the stones were from antediluvian times and proved the existence of the Great Flood, even publishing a book about it. Just as the book was published, his students came clean and admitted they had carved the stones themselves. They became known as the ‘Lying Stones’.
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