# kb

id: bonsai-kitten-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonsai_Kitten-1.md
category: reference
title: Bonsai Kitten
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonsai_Kitten
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:29:46.620421+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: bonsai-kitten-20260505-0
summary:
=== Animal cruelty accusations === Very shortly after the creation of the website, controversy arose surrounding the content. Many people believed that the site was serious, and wrote to various animal rights and welfare organizations pleading for investigations. Humane World for Animals (then the Humane Society of the United States) could not determine whether the site was a hoax or not, but called for its termination either way. Other animal advocacy groups did determine that the site was a hoax, but still demanded it be shut down for fear that it could encourage copycat violence. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it was "horrified" by the site, along with the larger trend of animal cruelty on the internet, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said that the joke was "inappropriate and certainly not funny", lamenting that it is legal to joke about animal cruelty. In early 2001, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals issued a subpoena to MIT for information on the site's owners. They also sent an armed investigator to the campus to gather information, as MSPCA is deputized under state law with arrest abilities. BonsaiKitten.com was the


id: calaveras-skull-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calaveras_Skull-0.md
category: reference
title: Calaveras Skull
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calaveras_Skull
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:29:47.773315+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: calaveras-skull-20260505-0
summary:
The Calaveras Skull (also known as the Pliocene Skull) was a human skull found in 1866 by miners in Calaveras County, California, which was presented as evidence that humans were in North America as early as during the Pliocene Epoch (at least 2 million years ago), and which was used to support the idea the humans, mastodons, and mammoths had coexisted. The skull was later revealed to be a hoax, although it is now known that humans, mastodons, and mammoths had indeed coexisted, but much more recently (during the Pleistocene Epoch: at least 12,000 years ago). Coincidentally, calaveras is the Spanish word for skulls. == History == On February 25, 1866, miners claimed to have found a human skull in a mine, beneath a layer of lava, 130 feet (40 m) below the surface of the earth. The skull made it into the hands of Josiah Whitney, then the state geologist of California and professor of geology at Harvard University. A year before the skull came to his attention, Whitney published the belief that humans, mastodons, and mammoths coexisted; the skull served as proof of his convictions. After careful study, he officially announced its discovery at a meeting of the


id: legrand-g-capers-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legrand_G._Capers-0.md
category: reference
title: Legrand G. Capers
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legrand_G._Capers
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:29:48.954197+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: legrand-g-capers-20260505-0
summary:
Legrand G. Capers (April 16, 1834 – December 2, 1877) was an American physician, best known for his 1874 spurious case report of bullet-mediated impregnation of a young woman. == Biography == Legrand Guerry Capers, Jr. was born on April 16, 1834, in Charleston, South Carolina, as the son of the merchant LeGrand G. Capers (1808–1868) and his first wife, Abigail Swift (1810–1846). LeGrand G. Capers, Sr. served on Gen. Worth's staff during the Mexican–American War. LeGrand G. Capers, Jr. studied medicine as the assistant to his brother-in-law, Ebenezer Swift, and graduated from Jefferson Medical College. Later he practised as ship physician on Vanderbilt's steamers. When the American Civil War broke out, Capers participated in the foundation of the Confederate Medical Department in Alabama. On July 19, 1861, he became assistant surgeon in the 4th Georgia Volunteer Infantry. On October 30, 1863, he was promoted to chief surgeon in Cutshaw's battalion. After the end of the war in 1865, Capers moved to New Orleans and became demonstrator of anatomy in the New Orleans School of Medicine. He fell ill in October 1877 and died shortly after from tuberculosis on December 2. He is buried in Vicksburg. Obituaries appeared in the


id: cardiff-giant-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Giant-0.md
category: reference
title: Cardiff Giant
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Giant
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:29:50.145870+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: cardiff-giant-20260505-0
summary:
The Cardiff Giant was one of the most famous archaeological hoaxes in American history. It was a 10-foot-tall (3.0 m), roughly 3,000 pound purported "petrified man", uncovered on October 16, 1869, by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. "Stub" Newell, in Cardiff, New York. He covered the giant with a tent and it soon became an attraction site. Both it and an unauthorized copy made by P. T. Barnum are still being displayed. == Creation and discovery == The giant was the creation of a New York tobacconist named George Hull. He was deeply attracted to science and especially to the theory of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin. Hull got into an argument with Reverend Turk and his supporters at a Methodist revival meeting about Genesis 6:4, which states that there were giants who once lived on Earth. Hull, a skeptic, being the minority party, lost the argument. Angered by his defeat and the credulity of people, Hull wanted to prove how easily he could fool people with a fake giant. The idea of a petrified man did not originate with Hull, however. During 1858, the newspaper Alta California had published a fake letter claiming that


id: cardiff-giant-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Giant-1.md
category: reference
title: Cardiff Giant
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Giant
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:29:50.145870+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: cardiff-giant-20260505-0
summary:
Being asked my opinion, my answer was that the whole matter was undoubtedly a hoax; that there was no reason why the farmer should dig a well in the spot where the figure was found; that it was convenient neither to the house nor to the barn; that there was already a good spring and a stream of water running conveniently to both; that, as to the figure itself, it certainly could not have been carved by any prehistoric race, since no part of it showed the characteristics of any such early work; that, rude as it was, it betrayed the qualities of a modern performance of a low order. However, he was taken aback by the channels on the bottom part of the giant, stating that for such grooving to be created on local Onondaga grey limestone would require years. Yale paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh examined the statue, pointing out that it was made of soluble gypsum, which, had it been buried in its blanket of wet earth for centuries, would not still have fresh tool marks on it (which it did), and termed it "a most decided humbug". Some theologians and preachers, however, defended its authenticity. Eventually, Hull


id: cello-scrotum-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cello_scrotum-0.md
category: reference
title: Cello scrotum
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cello_scrotum
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:29:51.325708+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: cello-scrotum-20260505-0
summary:
Cello scrotum is a hoax medical condition originally published as a brief case report in the British Medical Journal in 1974. As its name suggests, it was purportedly an affliction of the scrotum affecting male players of the cello. == History == The original letter was written by Elaine Murphy but signed by her husband John. The journal had printed an earlier report about 'guitar nipple', a condition said to occur when some styles of guitar playing excessively irritate the player's nipple (a form of contact dermatitis similar to jogger's nipple), which Murphy and her husband believed was likely a joke. Murphy now points out that even a cursory study of the cellist's posture would show that the 'cello scrotum' complaint would not occur. The unlikelihood of a cellist's posture contributing to scrotal injury was raised back in 1974, but seems to have been overlooked. Murphy admitted the hoax in 2009 in another letter to the BMJ after an article in the 2008 Christmas edition of the BMJ made reference to the complaint. The truth of the case report had already been questioned in the medical literature in 1991. Others have cited it, although expressing scepticism. The implications of this


id: ctenophthalmus-nepalensis-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ctenophthalmus_nepalensis-0.md
category: reference
title: Ctenophthalmus nepalensis
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ctenophthalmus_nepalensis
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:29:52.452130+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: ctenophthalmus-nepalensis-20260505-0
summary:
Ctenophthalmus nepalensis was a fictional species of parasitic flea described by a pseudonymous author Otto Suteminn in 1969 as part of a scientific hoax. The description was published in the journal Zeitschrift der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Österreichischer Entomologen to ostensibly to demonstrate how poor their editorial process was. The hoax was uncovered only in 1973. == Hoax details and background == The hoax was foisted by Hans Malicky, who was the chairperson of the Entomological Society of Austria in the late 1960s. He sought to improve the quality of publishing by the society newsletter Entomologische Nachrichtenblatt which led to him being relieved from the post. The hoax article was published shortly after in 1969. The journal paper described two new species of fleas named Ctenophthalmus nepalensis and Amalareus fossoris, both purportedly from Nepal by the author "Otto Suteminn". It was not until 1972 that the hoax was uncovered in an article by flea taxonomist F.G.A.M. Smit of the Natural History Museum, London who published “Notes on Two Fictitious Fleas from Nepal” in the journal Entomologische Nachrichtenblatt. Smit identified that not only were the species hoaxes but so were their hosts Canis fossor (meaning grave-digging dog) and Apodemus roseus. Along with an Austrian


id: dipak-k-das-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipak_K._Das-0.md
category: reference
title: Dipak K. Das
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipak_K._Das
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:29:53.764019+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: dipak-k-das-20260505-0
summary:
Dipak Kumar Das (1947 – September 19, 2013) was the director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington and is known for research fraud. His work centered on the beneficial properties of resveratrol, which is found in red wine, but over twenty of his research papers have been since retracted. On January 11, 2012, the University of Connecticut Health Center announced that a review board has found Das guilty of 145 counts of fabrication or falsification of data; the three-year investigation examined more than seven years of activity in Das's lab, and centered on Western blot results that had been manipulated and used in published papers. In May 2012, Das was fired from both positions at the University of Connecticut Health Center. == Biography == Das graduated from Jadavpur University and received his Ph.D. from Calcutta University in India. He joined the University of Connecticut in 1984 and received tenure in 1993. Das was a prolific publisher of research. His name appears on over 500 articles, including 117 articles on resveratrol. Das was an editor-in-chief of the journal Antioxidants and Redox Signaling. He also served as associate editor of the American Journal of


id: de-loys-s-ape-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Loys's_ape-0.md
category: reference
title: De Loys's ape
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Loys's_ape
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:29:54.934501+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: de-loys-s-ape-20260505-0
summary:
De Loys's ape, given the proposed scientific name Ameranthropoides loysi, was an alleged large primate reported by Swiss geological explorer François de Loys in South America. The only evidence for the animal besides de Loys's testimony is one photograph. It was promoted by George Montandon as a previously unknown species, but is now considered a misidentification of a spider monkey species or a hoax. == Encounter == Swiss oil geologist François de Loys led an expedition from 1917 to 1920 to search for petroleum in an area along the border between Colombia and Venezuela, primarily near Lake Maracaibo. The expedition was unsuccessful. De Loys's group suffered diseases and violent encounters with native populations; only four of the 20 members survived. According to de Loys's later report, in 1920, while camped on a bank of a tributary of the Tarra River, two large creatures approached the group. Initially, de Loys thought they were bears, but then noted that they were monkey-like. The creatures – one male, one female – seemed angry, said de Loys, and they advanced howling and gesturing, as well as breaking and holding some branches.They defecated into their hands,and flung feces at the expedition. Fearing for their safety,


id: dihydrogen-monoxide-parody-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_parody-0.md
category: reference
title: Dihydrogen monoxide parody
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_parody
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:29:56.126199+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: dihydrogen-monoxide-parody-20260505-0
summary:
The dihydrogen monoxide parody involves referring to water (H2O) by its unfamiliar chemical systematic name "dihydrogen monoxide" (DHMO) and describing some properties of water in a particularly concerning manner – such as its ability to accelerate corrosion (rust) and cause suffocation (drowning) – often calling for it to be banned, regulated strictly, or labeled as a hazardous chemical. The motivation behind the parody is to play into chemophobia, and to demonstrate how exaggerated analysis, information overload, and a lack of scientific literacy can lead to misplaced fears. Occasionally, reports also reference its widespread contamination of rivers or municipal water supplies. The parody has also involved other uncommon chemical nomenclatures for water such as "hydrogen hydroxide", "dihydrogen oxide" and "hydric acid". == History == In 1983, on April Fools' Day, an edition of the Durand Express, a weekly newspaper in Durand, Michigan, reported that "dihydrogen oxide" had been found in the city's water pipes, and warned that it was fatal if inhaled, and could produce blistering vapors. The first appearance of the parody as "dihydrogen monoxide" on the Internet was attributed to the "Coalition to Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide", a parody organization at the University of California, Santa Cruz following on-campus postings


id: dihydrogen-monoxide-parody-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_parody-1.md
category: reference
title: Dihydrogen monoxide parody
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_parody
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:29:56.126199+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: dihydrogen-monoxide-parody-20260505-0
summary:
In 1989–1990, several students circulated a dihydrogen monoxide contamination warning on the University of California, Santa Cruz, campus via photocopied fliers. In 1994, Craig Jackson created a web page for the Coalition to Ban DHMO. The Friends of Hydrogen Hydroxide website was created by Dan Curtis Johnson, partly as a foil on the Coalition page, claiming to oppose its "subversive agenda". The site points out that hydrogen hydroxide is "environmentally safe" and "enhances the functionality, growth, and health of many forms of life". In 1997, Nathan Zohner, a 14-year-old student at Eagle Rock Junior High School in Idaho Falls, Idaho, gathered 43 votes to ban the chemical, out of 50 ninth-graders surveyed. Zohner received the first prize at Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair for analysis of the results of his survey. In recognition of his experiment, journalist James K. Glassman coined the term "Zohnerism" to refer to "the use of a true fact to lead a scientifically and mathematically ignorant public to a false conclusion". In late 1997, drawing inspiration from Jackson's web page and Zohner's research, Tom Way created a website at DHMO.org, including links to some legitimate sites such as the Environmental Protection Agency and National Institutes of


id: disappearing-blonde-gene-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearing_blonde_gene-0.md
category: reference
title: Disappearing blonde gene
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearing_blonde_gene
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:29:57.289553+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: disappearing-blonde-gene-20260505-0
summary:
The "disappearing blonde gene" refers to a hoax that emerged in parts of the Western world in the early 2000s, claiming that a scientific study had estimated that blonds would become extinct within the next two centuries. More specifically, it claimed that, because the alleles for blond hair genes are recessive, people with natural blond hair would become less common as people with dominant non-blond hair alleles had offspring with them, even though such a pairing would retain one copy of the blond allele in the genome of said offspring. Nevertheless, the hoax was repeated as fact by some mainstream Western media outlets, such as ABC News, the BBC, CNN, and The Sunday Times, between 2002 and 2006. The earliest known claims of a looming "blond extinction" date back to 1865. Several outlets propagating the hoax also falsely cited the World Health Organization (WHO), asserting that it had published a report claiming that blonds "will become extinct by 2202" in spite of the fact that neither the WHO nor any reputable expert had issued such a report. In response, the WHO released an official statement telling all those who had commented on the non-existent report to retract their remarks. ==


id: document-12-571-3570-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Document_12-571-3570-0.md
category: reference
title: Document 12-571-3570
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Document_12-571-3570
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:29:58.452726+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: document-12-571-3570-20260505-0
summary:
Document 12-571-3570 (also titled NASA No. 12 571-3570) is a hoax document originally posted to the Usenet newsgroup alt.sex on November 28, 1989. According to this document, astronauts aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-75 performed a variety of sex acts to determine which positions are most effective in zero gravity. The document goes on to report that of the 10 positions tested, six required the use of a belt and an inflatable tunnel, while four were contingent on hanging on. The document also discusses a video record of the 10 one-hour sessions in the lower deck of the shuttle, and notes that the subjects added their own personal footnotes to help scientists. The real STS-75 mission occurred in 1996‍—‍seven years after the text was published‍—‍clearly indicating that the document is a hoax. Nonetheless, many people have been fooled by this document and NASA has had to debunk it on several occasions. In March 2000, NASA's director of media services Brian Welch referred to the document as a "fairly well-known 'urban legend'". This fictional document was rediscovered and widely publicized by astronomer and scientific writer Pierre Kohler, who used it as a major source about sex experiments in space in his 2000


id: enigmarelle-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigmarelle-0.md
category: reference
title: Enigmarelle
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigmarelle
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:29:59.593980+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: enigmarelle-20260505-0
summary:
Enigmarelle was a fake humanoid automaton, in fact with a person concealed inside, which was exhibited as a scientific and technical curiosity around 1905 in the US and Europe, chiefly in theaters. Enigmarelle was claimed to be able to perform several extraordinary tasks, which it demonstrated in performances: these included walking, riding a bicycle, and writing its name on a blackboard. == Presentation == Enigmarelle was shown in the US and then in parts of Europe, in vaudeville theaters and circuses. The booking agent, an American named Frederick J. Ireland, was represented at these appearances as the creator and owner of the automaton. Enigmarelle was a large automaton and was in fact operated by a human concealed within its body, although the precise operating mechanisms are not known. The operator is believed to have been a performer who had had both his legs amputated and who went by the name of Alba W. Root, and who also performed as a bicycle acrobat using leg prostheses. Enigmarelle was the subject of a short documentary film in 1905 and a detailed "scientific" description with three photos in Scientific American in 1906. It is mentioned in some modern publications on automatons. === Name


id: eo-rnis-pterovelox-gobiensis-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eoörnis_pterovelox_gobiensis-0.md
category: reference
title: Eoörnis pterovelox gobiensis
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eoörnis_pterovelox_gobiensis
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:00.756375+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: eo-rnis-pterovelox-gobiensis-20260505-0
summary:
Eoörnis pterovelox gobiensis is a fictional bird, a humorous hoax by Lester W. Sharp, professor of botany, Cornell University, United States. It was initially a short talk presented together with a graduate student, Cuthbert Fraser, about the most unusual bird from the Gobi Desert, called woofen-poof by the local populace. Eventually it grew into a 34-page monograph signed by an "Augustus C. Fotheringham, Sc.D. (Cantab.), F.R.G.S.", printed by "The Buighleigh Press" in 1928, full of illustrated detail of anatomy, physiology, ecology, evolution, and historical references, complete with Cro-Magnon cave paintings — all inspired by a car mascot of a pelican. For example, Pterovelox "is perhaps most frequently observed in a peculiar resting position — legs straight out behind with the feet on the rock, tree branch or other object, the body being supported by continuous vibration of wings". The monograph has later been reprinted several times. The peculiarities of the bird's mating were even unwittingly quoted in a eugenics article on consanguineous marriages in 1934: "A new, and recently authenticated, case of naturally determined incest, appears to have been discovered by the British Museum Expedition to the Gobi Desert in 1929, when a bird, the Eoörnis pterovelox gobiensis, was found,


id: fatu-liva-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatu-liva-0.md
category: reference
title: Fatu-liva
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatu-liva
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:01.925930+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: fatu-liva-20260505-0
summary:
The Fatu-liva is a fictional species of bird invented by George S. Chappell in his travel parody The Cruise of the Kawa: Wanderings in the South Seas, by Walter E. Traprock (1921). Fatu-liva were said to be found only in the fictional "Filbert Islands" in the South Pacific Ocean where they laid cube-like, black-spotted eggs that were very similar in appearance to dice. The bird's nest was described in the book as: "...a semi-spheric bowl of closely woven grass in which lay four snow-white, polka-dotted cubes, the marvelous square eggs of the fatu-liva." Additionally, a black-and-white photograph of what was supposedly the bird's dice-like eggs was provided. Its caption read: "This is without question the most extraordinary picture which has ever been taken of any natural history subject. It corroborates in most convincing manner the author's claim to the discovery of the wonderful fatu-liva bird with its unique gift of laying square eggs. Here we see the eggs themselves in all the beauty of their cubical form and quaint marking; here we see the nest itself, made of delicately woven haro and brought carefully from the tree's summit by its discoverer, Babai-Alova-Babai. An extremely interesting feature of the picture is


id: flying-penguin-hoax-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_penguin_hoax-0.md
category: reference
title: Flying penguin hoax
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_penguin_hoax
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:03.131460+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: flying-penguin-hoax-20260505-0
summary:
Miracles of Evolution is a BBC film trailer featuring flying penguins made in 2008 as an April Fools' Day hoax. The film was advertised as compelling evidence for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. It was largely set on King George Island, 120 kilometres (75 mi) from mainland Antarctica. The Daily Telegraph wrote that the film was "an instant classic. It is accomplished work of this kind that guarantees the BBC its unique status." The BBC website still claims that it may attempt to film the flying penguins again because the original film did not explain how such small birds, that are not used to flying, could survive long migrations over vast, stormy oceans. Miracles of Evolution was filmed with animated penguins for the occasion of April Fools' Day, and to promote the BBC iPlayer. MSN included "The BBC's flying penguins" as one of their twelve "hoaxes of the decade." == The film == The film features Adélie penguins that live in Antarctica. Adélie penguins are one of the most southern seabirds in the world. The film claims that long and extremely cold Antarctic winters forced some groups of Adélies to adapt by (re)gaining the ability to fly. In the film


id: fur-bearing-trout-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fur-bearing_trout-0.md
category: reference
title: Fur-bearing trout
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fur-bearing_trout
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:04.254222+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: fur-bearing-trout-20260505-0
summary:
The fur-bearing trout (or furry trout) is a legendary creature found in American folklore and Icelandic folklore. According to folklore, the trout has created a thick coat of fur to maintain its body heat. Tales of furry fish date to the 17th century. The earliest known American publication dates from a 1929 Montana Wildlife magazine article by J.H. Hicken. A taxidermy furry trout produced by Ross C. Jobe is a specimen at the Royal Museum of Scotland; it is a trout with white rabbit fur "ingeniously" attached. There are no known examples of any fur-bearing trout species, but two examples of hair-like growths on fish are known. The "cotton mold", Saprolegnia, can infect fish, which can result in the appearance of fish covered in white "fur". Another fish, Mirapinna esau, has hairlike outgrowth and sports wing-like pectoral fins. == Commonalities == Fur-bearing trout are fictional creatures that are purportedly found in the Arkansas River, northern North America, and Iceland. The basic claim (or tall tale) is that the waters of lakes and rivers in the area are so cold that they evolved a thick coat of fur to maintain their body heat. Another theory says that it is due to


id: genpet-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genpet-0.md
category: reference
title: Genpet
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genpet
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:05.428633+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: genpet-20260505-0
summary:
Genpets are a mixed media installation art piece by artist Adam Brandejs. It is considered a hoax of exposure. The project has been shown in multiple galleries in Canada and Europe and has garnered some attention in the mass media. The creations were sculpted, automated creatures made of latex and plastic, and housed robotic circuitry to simulate slow respiration. They looked like small, hairless humanoids, and were intended to be displayed as living, but dormant, bio-engineered creatures for purchase as pets. The fabricated packaging indicated a purchaser had a choice of what personality traits their Genpet displayed based on a color-coded chemical behavioral modulation system, and that the creatures had a limited vocal capacity. The sculptures and packaging, along with the professional appearance and cleverly open ended interactive features website led many observers to assume that Genpets were real. In 2006, Genpets were featured on the weblog for The Museum of Hoaxes in San Diego, California. as well as broadcast on BBC News Worldwide on a BBC programme called Click as well as the Times (UK), the New York Times and G4TechTV. All the work was hand done by the artist Adam Brandejs, with assistance from makeup artist Crystal Pallister


id: golfballia-ambusta-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golfballia_ambusta-0.md
category: reference
title: Golfballia ambusta
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golfballia_ambusta
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:07.690226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: golfballia-ambusta-20260505-0
summary:
Golfballia ambusta is a purported species of fungus with specimens primarily kept at Kew Gardens, London. The specimens are not of organisms but burnt golf balls. In 1962, they were described as a new fungal species by R. W. G. Dennis, the head of mycology at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, possibly to challenge the mycological criteria in place as to what could be considered a fungus. Its binomial name is 'burnt golf ball' in Dog Latin. == History == In 1952, a burnt golf ball was submitted to mycologists from an anonymous source in Lancashire, northwest England, and deposited in the Fungarium at Kew Gardens, London. The submitter claimed it to be a specimen of a "rare fungal species" belonging to the genus Queletia, but mycologists thought its appearance more closely resembled Scleroderma citrinum, which has an irregular, nearly spherical sporocarp with thick leathery skin and colours that vary from white to tan or brown. The surface of a golf ball is dimpled and, when burned, its outer shell cracks to expose the rubber core, which is similar to the dark gleba of a mature S. citrinum sporocarp. Kew mycologists unsuccessfully attempted to collect spores from the specimen before realizing


id: great-moon-hoax-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moon_Hoax-0.md
category: reference
title: Great Moon Hoax
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moon_Hoax
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:08.852773+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: great-moon-hoax-20260505-0
summary:
The "Great Moon Hoax", also known as the "Great Moon Hoax of 1835", was a series of six articles published in The Sun (a New York newspaper), beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and civilization on the Moon. The discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel and his fictitious companion Andrew Grant. The story was advertised on August 21, 1835, as an upcoming feature allegedly reprinted from The Edinburgh Courant. The first in a series of six was published four days later on August 25. These articles were never retracted; however, on September 16, 1835, The Sun admitted the articles were in fact fabricated. == Hoax == The headline read: The articles described animals on the Moon, including bison, single-horned goats, mini zebras, unicorns, bipedal tail-less beavers and bat-like winged humanoids ("Vespertilio-homo") who built temples. There were trees, oceans and beaches. These discoveries were supposedly made with "an immense telescope of an entirely new principle". The telescope, transported to South Africa from New England, was said to be many times larger than any other telescope in the world. The lens measured "24 feet in diameter and 7 tons in weight". "Vespertilio-homo" can be translated


id: great-moon-hoax-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moon_Hoax-1.md
category: reference
title: Great Moon Hoax
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moon_Hoax
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:08.852773+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: great-moon-hoax-20260505-0
summary:
== Context == Locke's sensational reports were not out of place in the context of the mass proliferation of penny press newspapers such as the New York Sun which received much of their income from advertisements, a business practice made sustainable by large numbers of readers. The Sun was a pioneer when it came to producing shocking and often sensationalist journalism, being the first New York newspaper to report on murders, suicides, personal events, and divorces, and it was because of stories such as these that the Sun thrived in attracting readers to their articles, and thus to their advertisements. The success of such sensational stories as the "Great Moon Hoax" can be partly attributed to the influence of contemporary speculative science. Figures like the Reverend Thomas Dick, who claimed that the Moon was inhabited by billions of beings, had captured the public's imagination in the early 19th century. Locke's hoax played on similar popular beliefs, presenting them as the latest scientific findings from the well-respected astronomer Sir John Herschel, which lent the story credibility. == Legacy == The hoax is featured in Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History. Nate


id: grievance-studies-affair-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair-0.md
category: reference
title: Grievance studies affair
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:10.101456+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: grievance-studies-affair-20260505-0
summary:
The grievance studies affair was the project of a team of three authors—Peter Boghossian, James A. Lindsay, and Helen Pluckrose—to highlight what they saw as poor scholarship and erosion of standards in several academic fields. Taking place over 2017 and 2018, their project entailed submitting bogus papers to academic journals on topics from the field of critical social theory such as cultural, queer, race, gender, fat, and sexuality studies to determine whether they would pass through peer review and be accepted for publication. Four of these papers were subsequently published, which the authors cited in support of their contention. The affair echoed Alan Sokal's 1996 hoax in Social Text, a cultural studies journal, which inspired Boghossian, Lindsay, and Pluckrose. The trio set out with the intent to expose problems in what they called "grievance studies", referring to academic areas where they claim "a culture has developed in which only certain conclusions are allowed [...] and put social grievances ahead of objective truth". As such, the trio, identifying themselves as political liberals, though with Vox identifying prior transgressions made by each against left-liberalism, described their project as an attempt to raise awareness of what they believed was the damage that postmodernism


id: grievance-studies-affair-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair-1.md
category: reference
title: Grievance studies affair
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:10.101456+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: grievance-studies-affair-20260505-0
summary:
=== Attempts === Prior to the affair, various academics highlighted concerns about the intellectual validity of much research influenced by postmodern philosophy and critical theory by publishing hoax articles in various journals. It was the 1996 hoax by Alan Sokal in Social Text, in particular, that influenced James A. Lindsay and Peter Boghossian to publish a hoax article of their own. On May 19, 2017, peer-reviewed journal Cogent Social Sciences published "The conceptual penis as a social construct", which argued that penises are not "male"; rather, they should be analyzed as social constructs instead. The same day, Lindsay and Boghossian revealed it to be a hoax aimed at discrediting gender studies, although Cogent Social Sciences is not exclusively a gender-studies journal. While the journal did conduct a postmortem, both authors concluded the "impact [of the hoax] was very limited, and much criticism of it was legitimate". The authorship of each paper was either fictional—such as "Helen Wilson" of "Portland Ungendering Research Initiative"—or real people willing to lend their name, such as Richard Baldwin, professor emeritus of history at Gulf Coast State College. The first acceptance, "Human Reactions to Rape Culture and Queer Performativity at the Dog Park", was achieved five


id: grievance-studies-affair-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair-2.md
category: reference
title: Grievance studies affair
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:10.101456+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: grievance-studies-affair-20260505-0
summary:
=== Praise === Mounk of Johns Hopkins University said that while the authors received no favors for preparing the hoax, they demonstrated mastery in postmodern jargon and not only ridiculed the journals in question, but, more importantly, outed double standards of gender studies which happily welcome hoaxes against "morally suspect" fields like economics, but are unable to accept a criticism of their own methods. He also commented on the "sheer amount of tribal solidarity it has elicited among leftists and academics" and the fact that many of the reactions were purely ad hominem, while few have actually said that there is an actual problem highlighted by the hoax: "some of the leading journals in areas like gender studies have failed to distinguish between real scholarship and intellectually vacuous as well as morally troubling bullshit". Rejecting complaints that the trio, lacking a control group, engaged in a "confused attempt to import statistics into a question where it doesn't apply", Mounk stated that the trio had promised "nothing of the sort" in the first place, and had instead successfully accomplished their goal of demonstrating that it was "possible" to "get bullshit published" in the journals in question. Justin E. H. Smith defended


id: grievance-studies-affair-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair-3.md
category: reference
title: Grievance studies affair
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:10.101456+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: grievance-studies-affair-20260505-0
summary:
(1) journals with higher impact factors were more likely to reject papers submitted as part of the project; (2) the chances were better, if the manuscript was allegedly based on empirical data; (3) peer reviews can be an important asset in the process of revising a manuscript; and (4) when the project authors, with academic education from neighboring disciplines, closely followed the reviewers' advice, they were able to learn relatively quickly what is needed for writing an acceptable article. The boundary between a seriously written paper and a "hoax" gradually became blurred. Finally (5), the way the project ended showed that in the long run, the scientific community will uncover fraudulent practices. Lagerspetz concludes that the experiment was flawed both experimentally and ethically, and failed to provide the evidence it sought. It is unclear, on what grounds the project group decided what journals to target. One third (7) of the 21 final editorial decisions the authors received were positive, two thirds of the decisions were negative. In the absence of a control group, it is impossible to tell whether this proportion would have been lower or higher within other disciplines. == List of hoax papers == === Accepted === ====


id: vishwa-jit-gupta-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishwa_Jit_Gupta-0.md
category: reference
title: Vishwa Jit Gupta
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishwa_Jit_Gupta
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:11.304705+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: vishwa-jit-gupta-20260505-0
summary:
Vishwa Jit Gupta, alternatively spelt Viswa Jit Gupta, or Vishwajit Gupta, (1942—2022) was an Indian paleontologist and former professor of geology at Panjab University, Chandigarh. He is reputed for research in the geological settings and fossil records of the Himalayas, publishing five books and 458 articles on the subject between 1966 and 1989. However, many of his fossils were revealed to be fake or manipulated, and he became infamous for large-scale scientific fraud, the case that came to be known as the Himalayan fossil hoax. Once recognised as "India's most celebrated fossil scientist", he has been named as "the greatest" and "most notorious paleontological fraudster" and "Houdini of the Himalayas." == Biography == Gupta studied M.Sc. in the Department of Geology (at the time the Centre of Advanced Study in Palaeontology and Himalayan Geology) at Panjab University, Chandigarh. After enrolling in a doctoral programme under the supervision of Mulk Raj Sahni, he investigated on the fossils of the Himalayan region in Kashmir. He and Sahni published the first reports of fossils in 1964, the discovery of graptolites in two papers in Nature, and fossil assemblage in two papers in Current Science, and one in the Journal of the Palaeontological Society


id: john-william-heslop-harrison-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Heslop-Harrison-0.md
category: reference
title: John William Heslop-Harrison
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Heslop-Harrison
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:12.446334+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: john-william-heslop-harrison-20260505-0
summary:
John William Heslop Harrison, (1881–1967) was a professor of Botany at Kings College, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, specialising in the genetics of moths. He is now best remembered for a widely recognised academic fraud. == Early life and education == He was born in Birtley on 22 January 1881, the son of George Heslop-Harrison, a pattern-maker at Birtley Iron Works. He was educated at Bede College School in Durham then Rutherford School for Boys in Newcastle upon Tyne. His mother was a keen gardener, and other influences such as his uncle, Rev J E Hull, and neighbour, Charles Robson, led him to an early interest in botany and natural history. He then studied at Durham College of Science, where he obtained a BSc degree in 1903. He did further postgraduate study at the University of Newcastle, gaining an MSc degree in 1916 and a DSc in 1917. In 1921 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE). His proposers were James Hartley Ashworth, Sir Thomas Hudson Beare, Percy Hall Grimshaw, and James Ritchie. He served as the Society's Vice-President 1945–1948. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1928. He died in Birtley, Tyne and Wear


id: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax-0.md
category: reference
title: Himalayan fossil hoax
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:13.892347+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-0
summary:
The Himalayan fossil hoax (also called the Himalayan hoax or the case of the peripatetic fossils) is a case of scientific misconduct perpetrated by Indian palaeontologist Vishwa Jit Gupta of Panjab University. Since his doctoral research in the 1960s and the following two decades, Gupta worked on the geology and fossil record of the Himalayan region, producing hundreds of research publications that were taken as fundamentals to understanding the geological formation of the Himalayas. Australian geologist John Talent from Macquarie University followed Gupta's research and happened to visit the Himalayas where he found that Gupta's fossils did not match those geological settings and were odd — some being extraordinarily similar to fossils from other parts of the world. In 1987, in the presence of Gupta at a scientific conference in Canada, Talent publicly displayed that Gupta's fossils were identical to those found in Morocco. Talent and his student Glenn Brock reanalysed Gupta's research, bringing out systematic evidence that Gupta had manipulated, faked, recycled, and plagiarised his data. Early in 1978, Gilbert Klapper and Willi Ziegler had suspected foul play as they noticed that Gupta's conodont fossils were similar to those collected by George Jennings Hinde from Buffalo, New York, a


id: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax-1.md
category: reference
title: Himalayan fossil hoax
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:13.892347+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-0
summary:
In 1978, the American geologist Gilbert Klapper from the University of Iowa met Willi Ziegler at the University of Marburg in Germany to discuss the progress of research on extinct jawless vertebrates, the conodonts. At that time, Ziegler had Australian guests, John W. Pickett from the Geological Survey of New South Wales and his associate John Alfred Talent from Macquarie University in Sydney. Talent was by then an established expert in Devonian geology of Australian and Indian regions. As the leader of the research team of the first International Geological Correlation Programme (IGCP-1), a project of UNESCO, Talent had explored the Himalayas in 1973−1977. Pickett and Talent shared their Himalayan studies and discussed Gupta's research on Devonian conodonts. They had also investigated 20 locations around Nepal, where Gupta had claimed many discoveries from Triassic, Permian, Carboniferous, and Devonian deposits (rocks ranging from around 420 to 299 million years old), and to their astonishment, found no fossils except one which was Silurian (around 443 to 420 Ma, therefore pre-Devonian). In one specific case, they explored the area where Gupta and William B. N. Berry (Director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology) had reported in 1966 several fossils from Kashmir.


id: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax-2.md
category: reference
title: Himalayan fossil hoax
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:13.892347+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-0
summary:
In 1980, Gupta met Philippe Janvier at the Museum of Natural History in Paris and showed him "a magnificent fossil fish skull" which he brought along. Gupta had travelled to China, but claimed that he had collected the fossil from Zanskar, Ladakh, at the foothills of the Himalayas. Recognising the fossil as a new species, Janvier made the identification, and with Gupta submitted the discovery to the journal Recent Researches in Geology the next year. Shortly after this, Janvier went to Sweden where he met Zhang Miman (Meemann Chang), director of the Chinese Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, who was working on some fish fossils from China. Janvier immediately noticed that some of these fossils were exactly like the one he and Gupta had recently described. When inquired, Miman explained to him that the particular specimen was an extinct Devonian coelacanth species she named Youngolepis praecursor (formally reported by Miman in 1995) that was found in Yunnan and North Vietnam, and so common in those regions that the fossils were frequently used as gifts to visitors. Chang had already published the discovery in January 1981. Janvier told Gupta to hold their publication, but it was eventually published in 1982


id: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax-3.md
category: reference
title: Himalayan fossil hoax
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:13.892347+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-0
summary:
The database for the Silurian and Devonian of the Himalaya has become so extensively marred by error, inconsistency and implausibility as to throw grave doubts on the scientific validity of any conclusions that might be drawn from it. An appropriate way to approach this problem and clarify many of the questions raised would be through an independent fact-finding commission set up to probe most of the legions of paleontologically anomalous and suspect reports. The story became widely known from Nature and Science articles, especially by a series of four Nature articles titled "the peripatetic fossils" between 1989 and 1990; a defence from Gupta, comments by Arun Deep Ahluwalia, S. B. Bhatia, Udai K. Bassi, and Philippe Janvier and John Bruce Waterhouse, and last by Talent's summary. It was these reports that brought the case to an international level. == The fossils == === Conodonts === The principal fossils of dispute were the conodonts. One of the first and best-understood conodont fossils was from Amsdell Creek in New York, USA, which was determined as Devonian in age. With the help of the English geologists Frank H. T. Rhodes and R. L. Austin, Gupta reported a discovery titled "Devonian Conodonts from Kashmir"


id: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax-4.md
category: reference
title: Himalayan fossil hoax
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:13.892347+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-0
summary:
== Gupta's strategy == Gupta was careful in his research publications, asking eminent scientists to collaborate. He provided the fossils and the basic geological details, and allowed his collaborators to make the fossil identification, so that they became "unsuspecting partners in crime", as Bhargava lamented, or unwitting "partners in the deception", according to Bangalore Puttaiya Radhakrishna, editor of the Journal of the Geological Society of India. As in his first major publication in Nature in 1967, Gupta was able to convince Rhodes from the University College of Swansea (later president of Cornell University) and Austin from the University of Southampton. Gary Webster at Washington State University had coauthored nine of Gupta's papers, and asserted that his identification of the crinoid fossils was genuine, but later conceded that he was "virtually certain" they were obtained from places other than the Himalayas. He declared that Gupta had "willfully tried to dupe the scientific community". By 1989, Gupta had collaborated with 128 scientists around the world, including Berry, Director of the University of California, Berkeley's Museum of Paleontology, Kiril J. Budurov of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Michael E. Brookfield of the University of Guelph in Ontario, J. B. Waterhouse of the University


id: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax-5.md
category: reference
title: Himalayan fossil hoax
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:13.892347+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-0
summary:
Bassi of the Geological Survey of India, later verified that Kurig is not Devonian but a much younger Carboniferous sediment, and that the border and village records did not have any mention of Gupta visiting the site. In the same vein, Gupta and Erben reported in 1983 the occurrence of Carnian (298 to 272 million years old) conodonts and ammonoids from Khimokul La. Bassi, who had surveyed the area several times, attested that there is no Carnian sediment there, and that the check-post register or the villagers had no record of Gupta, Erben or any foreigner.


id: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax-6.md
category: reference
title: Himalayan fossil hoax
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:13.892347+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-0
summary:
== Reactions == Talent wrote that Gupta "inundated geological and biogeographical literature of the Himalayas with a blizzard of disinformation so extensive as to render the literature almost useless." Gupta said to The New York Times that he had invited Talent to Panjab University and the Himalayan sites to verify the research findings following the Calgary incident, but he had declined. In trying to undermine the accusations, he described the affair as "minor disagreements over taxonomy among experts." He defended himself by claiming Talent's allegations as "malicious bias and professional jealousy" based on lies that were "building up a story without any basis." He added, "We've had differences for the past 20 years, and he's trying to cash in on them." Talent admitted that he did decline Gupta's invitation as he felt it was more appropriate for other scientists to make inspections independently. In the Science report, Webster admitted having already had the information on the similarity between the Himalayan fossils and those in America and Europe, especially the crinoids which were found only in the United States. Commenting on Talent's Calgary speech, he conceded: "I am now virtually certain that most of these specimens did come from places other


id: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax-7.md
category: reference
title: Himalayan fossil hoax
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:13.892347+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-0
summary:
=== Geological Society of India === The Geological Society of India, which claimed to normally avoid publishing controversial matters in their academic journal, feared failure to publish Talent's accusations "could be construed as aquiescence in the alleged fraud", and published two articles from Talent criticizing Gupta's research. In the first paper, published in June 1989, Talent's team gave an elaboration of instances of plagiarism in Gupta's reports. The other, published in December 1989, presented further cases of fossil recycling and mismatching of the fossil sources. As Ian Anderson reported in New Scientist, the Geological Society of India made a "controversial move" by issuing an expression of concern, stating that "the fossil finds of V. J. Gupta are not reliable", but did not formally retract Gupta's papers. The society reassessed Gupta's papers and found "several discrepancies lending support to the accusations" in 19 publications. The society's scientists visited seven localities in the Himalayas where Gupta claimed to have collected Devonian fossils, but found no such evidence, declaring "the falsification of facts attempted by Gupta." They requested Gupta provide them access to his collection of specimens, research notes and laboratory register, but never received a response. The report titled "The Himalayan Fossil


id: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax-8.md
category: reference
title: Himalayan fossil hoax
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:13.892347+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-0
summary:
== Consequences == The Panjab University Vice Chancellor Ram Prakash Bambah issued Gupta's suspension order in February 1991. As Triloki Nath Kapoor soon replaced Bambah, Gupta was reinstated in January 1992. That year, the University Grants Commission of India stopped its funding to Gupta, and Nature reported a note of disappointment over Gupta's reinstallation, calling it an "Indian rope trick". The resurgent controversy compelled Kapoor for a proper action. The affair was investigated in an official inquiry led by Man Mohan Singh Gujral, the retired Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court. The inquiry started in February 1992 and lasted two years with the final report submitted in April 1994. Gupta could not make any evidential rebuttal, resorting to lame pretexts such as claiming that he did not have a good memory of his field research and never kept field notes. The verdict found Gupta guilty of all charges including data recycling, plagiarism, concocting research locations and conning other scientists. Panjab University imposed three penalties on Gupta: (1) he was officially reprimanded; (2) he was debarred from administrative positions, his becoming a dean which was due that year was stayed; and (3) his annual increments of salary were ceased. In


id: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-9
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax-9.md
category: reference
title: Himalayan fossil hoax
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_fossil_hoax
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:13.892347+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: himalayan-fossil-hoax-20260505-0
summary:
== Impact == Gupta's forgery has often been compared with the 1912 case of Piltdown Man, sometimes called the greatest hoax in science. Nature announced Talent's observations with a statement that it "will cast a longer shadow" than Piltdown Man because of its elaborate publications involving numerous discoveries through a quarter of a century, and multiple fossils and scientists. The Chicago Tribune described it as "the most serious case of its kind since the Piltdown hoax." The New York Times wrote: "Unlike the case of Piltdown man, in which a single skull was passed off as a fossil of a prehistoric human, this one involves a much broader range of reported finds that have become a part of scientific literature." Talent described the meaning and consequences of Gupta's research as proving the kangaroos as natives to Kashmir or rhinoceros to Rio. Given the scale of fossils and the research publications, he described it as "[perhaps] the biggest paleontological fraud of all time." In 1994, Down to Earth reported it as the "greatest scientific fraud of the century". According to Tony Mayer of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, the saga "is possibly one of the most extensive instances of malpractice in


id: holly-oak-gorget-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly_Oak_gorget-0.md
category: reference
title: Holly Oak gorget
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly_Oak_gorget
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:15.087375+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: holly-oak-gorget-20260505-0
summary:
The Holly Oak Gorget or Holly Oak Pendant is an artifact made from a section of shell that is engraved with the image of an extinct woolly mammoth reportedly found in Holly Oak, Delaware and initially identified as an example of Paleoindian art. Purported to have been a gorget carved during the Pleistocene, this object is now widely believed to be an archaeological forgery. == History == The Holly Oak Gorget was claimed to have been found in 1864 near the railroad station in Holly Oak. The object was reportedly found by Hilborne T. Cresson in 1864, but was not brought to the attention of the scientific community until December 1889 or the public until February 1890. The supposed discovery of the gorget by Cresson coincides directly with the discovery of another depiction of a woolly mammoth, in France; while excavating the La Madeleine rock shelter in 1864 Édouard Lartet discovered a clear depiction of a woolly mammoth on a fragment of mammoth tusk, providing evidence that humans and mammoths might once have co-existed in Europe. Once the Holly Oak gorget had been introduced to the scientific community and the public at large, the shell was put aside and rarely


id: holly-oak-gorget-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly_Oak_gorget-1.md
category: reference
title: Holly Oak gorget
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly_Oak_gorget
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:15.087375+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: holly-oak-gorget-20260505-0
summary:
=== Style === In 1892, D.G. Brinton expressed the need to be suspicious of objects purported to have been made by aboriginal artists, listing the gorget and Lenape Stone as examples of such, citing the constant recurrence of frauds, and in 1893, after having examined the gorget and Lenape Stone, deemed both to have been recently made. Several people who have viewed the Holly Oak gorget have commented on how similar the drawing is to the La Madeleine tusk. Frederick Ward Putnam of the Peabody Museum, Thomas Wilson of the United States National Museum, Daniel Brinton of the University of Pennsylvania, and even Cresson himself, have all discussed the similarities present between the two objects. At the time the shell became public, there were less than a half-dozen depictions of a mammoth available, and of those the La Madeleine drawing is by far the clearest depiction. At the time of the Holly Oak pendant, as there were so few ways known of drawing a mammoth, the marked similarities between the two were not thought of as being unduly suspicious. David Meltzer lists several parallels between the two. They both have the same orientation and posture, and while most mammoths are


id: huemul-project-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huemul_Project-0.md
category: reference
title: Huemul Project
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huemul_Project
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:16.271377+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: huemul-project-20260505-0
summary:
The Huemul Project (Spanish: Proyecto Huemul) was an early 1950s Argentine effort to develop a fusion power device known as the Thermotron. The concept was invented by Austrian scientist Ronald Richter, who claimed to have a design that would produce effectively unlimited power. Richter was able to pitch the idea to President of Argentina Juan Perón in 1948, and soon received massive funding to build an experimental site on Huemul Island, on a lake just outside the town of San Carlos de Bariloche in Patagonia, near the Andes mountains. Construction began late in 1949, and by 1951 the site was completed and carrying out tests. On 16 February 1951, Richter measured high temperatures that suggested fusion had been achieved. On 24 March, the day before an important international meeting of the leaders of the Americas, Perón publicly announced that Richter had been successful, adding that in the future energy would be sold in packages the size of a milk bottle. A worldwide interest followed, along with significant skepticism on the part of other physicists. Little information was forthcoming: no papers were published on the topic, and over the next year a number of reporters visited the site but were denied


id: huemul-project-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huemul_Project-1.md
category: reference
title: Huemul Project
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huemul_Project
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:16.271377+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: huemul-project-20260505-0
summary:
== Germans in Argentina == In 1947, a dossier was provided to Argentina by the Spanish embassy in Buenos Aires listing a number of German aeronautical engineers who were looking to sneak out of Germany. Among them was Kurt Tank, designer of the famed Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and many other successful designs. The dossier was passed to the recently formed Argentine Air Force's Commander in Chief, who passed it to Brigadier César Raúl Ojeda, who was in charge of aerodynamics research. Ojeda and Tank communicated and formulated plans to begin building a jet fighter in Argentina, which would eventually emerge as the FMA IAe 33 Pulqui II. Just before leaving for Argentina, Tank briefly met Richter in London, where Richter told Tank of his ideas for nuclear-powered aircraft. Richter was at that time doing some work in the German chemical industry. Tank had also contacted a number of other engineers and even famed fighter pilot and Luftwaffe general Adolf Galland. Various members of the group made their way to Argentina under false passports during late 1947 and 1948. The Germans were warmly received by Perón, who effectively gave them a blank cheque in an effort to rapidly develop the Argentine


id: huemul-project-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huemul_Project-2.md
category: reference
title: Huemul Project
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huemul_Project
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:16.271377+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: huemul-project-20260505-0
summary:
== Announcement == On 16 February 1951, Richter claimed he had successfully demonstrated fusion. He re-ran the experiment for members of the CNEA, later claiming that they had witnessed the world's first thermonuclear reaction. On 23 February, a technician working for the project expressed his concerns about the claims, suggesting that the measurement was likely due to the accidental tilting of the spectrograph's photographic plate while the experimental run was being set up. Richter refused to re-run the experiment. Instead, a week later he ordered the reactor to be disassembled so a new one could be built that included a magnetic confinement system. Meanwhile, plans for a new Laboratory 1 were started with this new design, this time to be buried underground. A 14-metre (46 ft) deep hole in hard rock was constructed, but Richter changed the design and had the hole filled in with concrete. On 2 March, Edward Miller, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Station for Inter-American Affairs, visited Argentina. This was ostensibly to visit the Pan American Games, but in reality was in advance of calling a meeting of American leaders later that month to discuss China's entry into the Korean War. Perón gave Miller an introduction


id: huemul-project-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huemul_Project-3.md
category: reference
title: Huemul Project
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huemul_Project
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:16.271377+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: huemul-project-20260505-0
summary:
== Public reaction == Shortly after Richter's conference, the matter was discussed in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, where it was noted that Richter's announcement had revealed no details of the system of operation. They also noted that Richter claimed three key advances during experimentation, but failed to mention any of them during the conference. Finally, although the method for measuring temperature was announced, the temperature itself was not. The United States Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) comment on the announcement was simply that "the Argentine Government announced more than a year ago that it was planning to engage in nuclear research." American physicists were universally dismissive of the announcement. Among the more famous responses was that of George Gamow, who said "It seemed to be 95% pure propaganda, 4¾% thermonuclear reactions on a very small scale, and the remaining ¼% probably something better." Ernest Lawrence was not so dismissive, noting that, "There is a tendency to laugh it off as being a lot of hot air or something. Well it may be, but we don't know all, and we should make every effort to find out." Edward Teller put it succinctly, "Reading one line one has to think he's


id: huemul-project-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huemul_Project-4.md
category: reference
title: Huemul Project
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huemul_Project
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:16.271377+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: huemul-project-20260505-0
summary:
== Cancellation == Argentine physicists were also critical of the announcement, but found little interest on the part of Perón, who was still at odds with the academic mainstream. González was growing increasingly frustrated with Richter, and in February 1952 told Perón that either Richter left the project, or he did. Perón accepted González's resignation and replaced him with his aide, Navy Captain Pedro Iraolagoitía. Iraolagoitía soon began to protest as well, finally convincing Perón to have the project investigated. Instead of calling upon the local physics community, Perón put together a team consisting of Iraolagoitía, a priest, two engineers including Mario Báncora, and young physicist José Antonio Balseiro, who was at that time studying in England and was asked to return with all haste. The team visited the site for a series of demonstrations between 5 and 8 September 1952. The committee analyzed Richter's work and published separate reports on the topic on 15 September. Balseiro, in particular, was convinced nothing nuclear was taking place. His report critiqued Richter's claims about how the system was supposed to work, especially the claims that the system was reaching the temperatures needed to demonstrate fusion; he stated that fusion reactions would require


id: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk-0.md
category: reference
title: Hwang Woo-suk
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:17.477711+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-0
summary:
Hwang Woo-suk (Korean: 황우석; born January 29, 1953) is a South Korean veterinarian and researcher. He was a professor of theriogenology and biotechnology at Seoul National University until he was dismissed on March 20, 2006. He was considered a pioneering expert in stem cell research and even called the "Pride of Korea". However, he became infamous around November 2005 for fabricating a series of stem cell experiments that were published in high-profile journals in a case known as the Hwang affair. Hwang was best known for two articles published in the journal Science in 2004 and 2005, where he reported he had succeeded in creating human embryonic stem cells by cloning. However, soon after the first paper was released, an article in the journal Nature accused Hwang of having committed ethical violations by using eggs from his graduate students and from the black market. Although he denied the charges at first, Hwang admitted the allegations were true in November 2005. Shortly after this, data from his human cloning experiments was revealed to have been falsified. On May 12, 2006, Hwang was charged with embezzlement and bioethics law violations after it emerged much of his stem cell research had been faked.


id: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk-1.md
category: reference
title: Hwang Woo-suk
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:17.477711+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-0
summary:
== Timeline == Hwang first caught media attention in South Korea when he announced he had successfully created a cloned dairy cow, Yeongrong-i in February 1999. His alleged success was touted as the fifth instance in the world in cow cloning, with a notable caveat: Hwang failed to provide scientifically verifiable data for the research, giving only media sessions and photo ops. Hwang's next claim came in April 1999, when he announced the cloning of a Korean cow, Jin-i, also without providing any scientifically verifiable data. Despite the notable absence of any of the scientific data needed to probe the validity of the research, Hwang's several claims were well received by the South Korean media and public, who were attracted by Hwang's claim of immeasurable economic prospect that his research was said to be promising. The claims of his research results resulted in him being awarded the Scientist of the Year Award by the Korea Science Journalists Association and the Inchon Award. Until 2004, Hwang's main area of research remained in creating genetically modified livestock that included cows and pigs. During that period, Hwang claimed to have created a BSE-resistant cow (which has not been verified), and also stated his


id: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk-2.md
category: reference
title: Hwang Woo-suk
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:17.477711+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-0
summary:
This is an extension of the ten days he said he needed to re-create the stem cells that he asked for back on December 16, 2005. Seoul prosecutors started a criminal investigation and raided Hwang's home that day. On January 20, 2006, Hwang maintained that two of his 11 forged stem cell lines had been maliciously switched for cells from regular, not cloned, embryos. The allegation involves the lines Hwang claims to have created at Seoul-based MizMedi Hospital. On November 22, 2016, Hwang received a certificate of patent on NT-1 technology from the Korean Intellectual Property Office.


id: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk-3.md
category: reference
title: Hwang Woo-suk
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:17.477711+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-0
summary:
== Hwang's laboratory technique == In the late 1990s, the method that scientists used in cloning was somatic cell nuclear transfer, which is the same procedure that was used to create Dolly the sheep. This laboratory technique begins when an egg is taken from a donor and the nucleus is removed from the egg, creating an enucleated egg. A cell, which contains DNA, is then taken from the animal being cloned. The enucleated egg is then fused together with the nucleus of the cloning subject's cell using electricity. This creates an embryo, which is implanted into a surrogate mother through in vitro fertilization. If the procedure is successful, then the surrogate mother will give birth to a baby that is a clone of the cloning subject at the end of a normal gestation period. In 2014 researchers were reporting cloning success rates of seven to eight out of ten but in 1996 it took 277 attempts to create Dolly. Hwang allegedly used this technique at his laboratory in SNU to clone dogs during his experiments throughout the early 2000s. He claimed that it was possible to clone mammals and that probability for success can be better than 1 in 277


id: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk-4.md
category: reference
title: Hwang Woo-suk
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:17.477711+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-0
summary:
Until late November 2005, Hwang was criticized only for unpublicized ethical violations. Colleagues and media outlets asserted that he had paid female donors for egg donations and that he had received donations from two junior researchers, both of which were violations. Later controversies centered around scientific misconduct. His team, which cloned the first human embryo to use for research, said they had used the same technology to create batches of embryonic stem cells from nine patients. According to Hwang, the result was much more efficient than they had hoped. Hwang's integrity as a researcher was again put in doubt when it was revealed that PD Su-cheop had scheduled a follow-up report questioning his achievement published in Science in June 2005, which stated he had cloned 11 lines of embryonic stem cells. This caused furious backlash among many South Koreans, and the reaction only intensified when it was discovered that Kim Sun-Jong, one of Hwang's researchers from MizMedi, had been coerced by illegal means to testify against Hwang. As a result, the scheduled broadcast was canceled and the network made a public apology to the nation, everyone more or less operating under the assumption that the show was at fault and


id: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk-5.md
category: reference
title: Hwang Woo-suk
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:17.477711+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-0
summary:
=== Official probe and confirmation of fraud === An internal panel was set up in Seoul National University to investigate the allegation, and the probe was started on December 17, 2005. The panel sealed off Hwang's laboratory and conducted a thorough investigation, collecting testimonies from Hwang, Roh and other people who were involved with the scandal. On December 23, the panel announced its initial finding that Hwang had intentionally fabricated stem cell research results creating nine fake cell lines out of eleven, and added that the validity of two remaining cell lines is yet to be confirmed. The panel stated that Hwang's misconduct is "a grave act damaging the foundation of science." Hwang's claim of having used only 185 eggs to create stem cell lines was also denied by the panel, which indicated that more eggs may have been used in the research process. The panel announced additional findings on December 29, and confirmed that no patient-matched embryonic stem cells existed, and that Hwang's team did not have the scientific data to prove any of the stem cells had ever been made. In its final report published on January 10, 2006, the panel reaffirmed its previous findings while announcing additional


id: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk-6.md
category: reference
title: Hwang Woo-suk
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:17.477711+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-0
summary:
=== Indictment of Hwang and collaborators === On May 12, 2006, Hwang was indicted on charges of embezzlement and breach of the country's bioethics law, without physical detention. Prosecutors also brought fraud charges against the three stem cell researchers. He embezzled 2.8 billion won (US$3 million) out of some 40 billion won in research funds, for personal purposes and the illegal purchase of ova used in his experiments. The prosecution also said Hwang's three associates involved in his stem cell research, Yoon Hyun-soo, Lee Byeong-chun and Kang Sung-keun, also misappropriated tens of millions of won in research money. Investigators have been tracking 24.6 billion won to find out how the research money was spent. It was part of Hwang's 36.9 billion won research funds raised through state support and private donations. Investigators said Hwang used bank accounts held by relatives and subordinates in 2002 and 2003 to receive about 475 million won from private organizations. He allegedly laundered the money by withdrawing it all in cash, breaking it up into smaller amounts and putting it back in various bank accounts. Hwang also withdrew 140 million won in August 2001 to buy gifts for his sponsors, including politicians and other prominent


id: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk-7.md
category: reference
title: Hwang Woo-suk
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:17.477711+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-0
summary:
=== Government involvement === After having acquired a celebrity status in South Korea, Hwang actively sought to establish every possible tie to political and economic institutions in the country. Hwang especially tried to win favor from the Roh Moo-hyun government, which in turn was suffering from a lack of popular support and wanted to demonstrate its competency by creating and promoting an exemplary policy success. Hwang approached Park Ki-young, a former biology professor, then appointed as the Information, Science and Technology Advisor for the President, and put her as one of the co-authors in his 2004 Science paper. Ties with Park yielded a favorable environment for Hwang in the government, as a non-official group consisting of high-ranking government officials was created to support Hwang's research that includes not only Hwang and Park, but also Kim Byung-joon, Chief National Policy Secretary, and Jin Dae-je, Information and Communications Minister. The group was dubbed as "Hwang-kum-pak-chui", a loose acronym made from member's family names, which means "golden bat" in Korean. After Hwang's paper was published in Science in 2005, support for Hwang came in full swing. In June 2005, the Ministry of Science and Technology selected Hwang as the first recipient of the


id: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk-8.md
category: reference
title: Hwang Woo-suk
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:17.477711+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hwang-woo-suk-20260505-0
summary:
=== Rallies supporting Hwang === The same day many South Korean citizens rallied outside Hwang's laboratory; as more than 1,000 women pledged to donate their eggs for the scientist's research. [ ... ] Hwang has been in seclusion since apologizing in November 2005, for ethical lapses in human egg procurement for his research. The symbolic event was as a gesture from Hwang's supporters that says they intend to donate their eggs with 1,000 of their members after they took egg-donation pledges online via their website. "Dr. Hwang will not be able to return to the lab, at least, until at the end of this week because he is extremely exhausted, mentally and physically", a key team member, Ahn Cu Rie, wrote in an e-mail to Reuters. [ ... ] At Hwang's lab at Seoul National University, women left bouquets of the national flower, a hibiscus called the Rose of Sharon, for the scientist along with notes of encouragement. The stem cell research center that Hwang led before resigning said it hoped he would return, even though his lapses could hurt its efforts to work with other research institutions. "So far more than 700 South Korean women have pledged to donate


id: journal-for-geoclimatic-studies-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_for_Geoclimatic_Studies-0.md
category: reference
title: Journal for Geoclimatic Studies
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_for_Geoclimatic_Studies
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:18.674179+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: journal-for-geoclimatic-studies-20260505-0
summary:
The Journal for Geoclimatic Studies is the name given to a nonexistent journal which published a fabricated global warming study in November 2007 entitled, "Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria: the death of manmade global warming theory?" The published study identified the Journal for Geoclimatic Studies as an official publication of Okinawa University's Institute for Geoclimatic Studies (The Institute for Geoclimatic Studies is also fraudulent and does not exist). The spurious study, ostensibly authored by Daniel Klein and Mandeep J. Gupta of the University of Arizona's Department of Climatology, and Philip Cooper and Arne FR Jansson at the University of Gothenburg's Department of Atmospheric Physics, claimed that global warming was not human caused, but the work of carbon-dioxide emitting bacteria based on the ocean floor. The report was circulated by a number of global warming deniers before discovery that the study authors and university departments identified in the publication did not exist. The website where the study was published was taken down once the deception was revealed, and its ownership was traced to David Thorpe, a science journalist and web designer based in the United Kingdom. The true author of the article is purportedly a man identifying himself as Mark


id: kensington-runestone-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Runestone-0.md
category: reference
title: Kensington Runestone
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Runestone
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:19.883519+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: kensington-runestone-20260505-0
summary:
The Kensington Runestone is a slab of greywacke stone covered in runes that was discovered in Western Minnesota, United States, in 1898. Olof Ohman, a Swedish immigrant, reported that he unearthed it from a field in the largely rural township of Solem in Douglas County. It was later named after the nearest settlement, Kensington. The inscription purports to be a record left behind by Scandinavian explorers in the 14th century (internally dated to 1362). There has been a drawn-out debate regarding the stone's authenticity, but since the first scientific examination in 1910, the scholarly consensus has classified it as a 19th-century hoax, with some critics directly charging Ohman with fabrication. Nevertheless, there remains a community convinced of the stone's authenticity. == Provenance == A Swedish immigrant, Olof Ohman, said that he found the stone late in 1898 while clearing his recently acquired land of trees and stumps before plowing. The stone was said to be near the crest of a small knoll rising above the wetlands, lying face down and tangled in the root system of a stunted poplar tree estimated to be from less than 10 to about 40 years old. The artifact is about 30 × 16 ×


id: kensington-runestone-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Runestone-1.md
category: reference
title: Kensington Runestone
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Runestone
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:19.883519+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: kensington-runestone-20260505-0
summary:
här : (10) : mans : ve : havet : at : se : äptir : vore : skip : 14 : dagh : rise : from : deno : öh : ahr : 1362 : The sequences rr, ll and gh represent actual digraphs. The AVM is written in Latin capitals. The numbers given in Arabic numerals in the above transcription are given in pentadic numerals. At least seven of the runes, including those transcribed a, d, v, j, ä, ö above, are not in any standard known from the medieval period (see below for details). The language of the inscription is close to modern Swedish, the transliterated text being quite easily comprehensible to any speaker of a modern Scandinavian language. The language, being closer to the Swedish of the 19th than of the 14th century, is one of the main reasons for the scholarly consensus dismissing it as a hoax. The text translates to: "Eight Geats and twenty-two Norwegians on an exploration journey from Vinland to the west. We had camp by two skerries one day's journey north from this stone. We were [out] to fish one day. After we came home [we] found ten men red of


id: kensington-runestone-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Runestone-2.md
category: reference
title: Kensington Runestone
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Runestone
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:19.883519+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: kensington-runestone-20260505-0
summary:
A possible origin for the irregular shape of the runes was discovered in 2004, in the 1883 notes of a then-16-year-old journeyman tailor with an interest in folk music, Edward Larsson. Larsson's aunt had migrated with her husband and son from Sweden to Crooked Lake, just outside Alexandria, Minnesota in 1870. Larsson's sheet lists two different Futharks. The first Futhark consists of 22 runes, the last two of which are bind-runes, representing the letter-combinations EL and MW. His second Futhark consists of 27 runes, where the last three are specially adapted to represent the letters å, ä, and ö of the modern Swedish alphabet. The runes in this second set correspond closely to the non-standard runes in the Kensington inscription. Another possible origin was discovered in 2019, when two short inscriptions with runes closely resembling the ones on the Kensington stone, dated 1870 and 1877 respectively, were discovered in a farm-hand's room in the village Kölsjön in the parish of Hassela, not too far from Olof Öhman's home parish Forsa. In 2020, Swedish archaeologist Mats G. Larsson discovered that Anna Ersson, cousin and childhood friend of Olof Öhman, lived in Kölsjön during 1878. Their relationship seems to have been close,


id: list-of-spurious-inventions-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spurious_inventions-0.md
category: reference
title: List of spurious inventions
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spurious_inventions
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:21.033997+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-spurious-inventions-20260505-0
summary:
This is a list of spurious inventions, technologies which are generally considered to not possess their claimed capabilities, to be hoaxes, or to not have ever existed in the first place. == See also == List of hoaxes == References ==


id: claude-mile-jean-baptiste-litre-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Émile_Jean-Baptiste_Litre-0.md
category: reference
title: Claude Émile Jean-Baptiste Litre
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Émile_Jean-Baptiste_Litre
date_saved: 2026-05-05T09:30:22.248423+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: claude-mile-jean-baptiste-litre-20260505-0
summary:
Claude Émile Jean-Baptiste Litre (1716–1778) is a fictional character created in 1978 by Kenneth Woolner of the University of Waterloo to justify the use of a capital L to denote litres. The International System of Units usually only permits the use of a capital letter when a unit is named after a person. The lower-case character l might be difficult to distinguish from the upper-case character I or the digit 1 in certain fonts and styles, and therefore both the lower-case (l) and the upper-case (L) are allowed as the symbol for litre. The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology now recommends the use of the uppercase letter L, a practice that is also widely followed in Canada and Australia. Woolner perpetrated the April Fools' Day hoax in the April 1978 issue of "CHEM 13 News", a newsletter concerned with chemistry for school teachers. According to the hoax, Claude Litre was born on 12 February 1716, the son of a manufacturer of wine bottles. During Litre's extremely distinguished fictional scientific career, he purportedly proposed a unit of volume measurement that was incorporated into the International System of Units after his death in 1778. The hoax was mistakenly printed


