Ethics

The Hollywoodization of Science

By Ed Brayton

As I'm sure you've heard by now, there's a new fossil find that's just been published in PLoS One, a 47 million year old specimen called Darwinus masillae, or more casually, Ida.. I suspect you've also heard that scientists have finally found the "missing link" and that the find "promised to change everything that we thought we understood about the origins of human life." Trouble is, this is all bullshit.

Yes, it's an extraordinary find. Yes, it provides evidence that fills a gap in our knowledge and will undoubtedly help us understand the development of primates more completely than we did before. But this find has been announced with the kind of hype and distortion usually reserved for movie premieres and newly improved laundry detergents. They did everything but have Billy Mayes declare that Ida will take the wrinkles out of your clothes.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on May 21, 2009 (boomark / email).