Category: C

An interesting occurrence in the field of animal cognition that received plenty of observational evidence but no scientific approval. A famous case was that of Clever Hans, a horse that demonstrated to audiences many times that he could add, subtract, and even solve complicated mathematical problems by tapping out numbers with his hoof and stopping…

One of the most unusual hoaxes in the history of photography, perpetrated by two preteen English girls in the summer of 1917. During World War I, Frances Griffiths, age 10, returned home thoroughly wet one afternoon, explaining to her unsympathetic mother that she had fallen into a brook while playing with the local fairies. Her…

A term used to describe a common characteristic of both scientists and pseudoscientists the unshakeable conviction of rightness, whatever the evidence. Sometimes this conviction is so strong that it defies disproof. The holder knows his idea is right, and any denial is dismissed with varying levels of contempt. The denier has not understood, or is…

The idea that continents move horizontally. Once considered pseudoscientific, this tenet is now part of mainstream science. Before the modern revolution of plate tectonics of the 1950s and 1960s, the idea that the continents might move horizontally around the globe seemed ludicrous; yet prima facie evidence had long been known, in the approximate match between…

During the next two decades, the air force’s UFO project underwent several reorganizations and name changes, the final name being Project Blue Book. The information gathered was evaluated and discussed not only by the air force but by the Department of Defense. By 1966, many reports of UFO sightings and even abductions had generated a…

An instrument created in the early 1930s to facilitate the reception of scientifically evidential communications with the spirits of the dead. It was a product of the ASHK1R-JOBSON Trianion guild, which grew out of the work of three British researchers, A. J. Ashdown, B. K. Kirby, and George Jobson. Jobson died in 1930 and purportedly…

Spurious prehistoric man. Following his more famous Cardiff giant hoax, P. T. Barnum ordered the construction of another primitive human specimen that he could exhibit. He had learned from the criticism of the earlier effort and directed that the new man be constructed out of more convincing materials, including actual bones, and that the arms…

The 1989 discovery by Martin Fleischmann of the University of Southampton and Stanley Pons of the University of Utah of a low temperature method of fusing atomic nuclei, with the consequent release of huge amounts of energy. The process of nuclear fusion, much sought after because of its promise of virtually endless amounts of energy…

“Living fossil” fish, member of an ancient suborder called crossopterygians (“fringe-finned” fish). Coelacanths were long thought to have become extinct during the same period in which the dinosaurs died out. Then in 1938 fishermen landed a living coelacanth off the coast of South Africa. The scientific world was stunned. The discovery of this fish (Latimeria…

Any device or process that will cause clouds to empty to rain. The hope that humans might control weather has a long history. Rain, or the absence of rain, can have very serious consequences. As rain comes and goes of its own accord, beyond human control, it can be frustrating. Societies in many parts of…