Open this book and discover the secret of eternal youth!" exclaims the back cover of Hoaxes! It's a facetious promise, of course, a miniature hoax befitting a book describing all manner of dupes, dodges, and dastardly deceptions.
Some of the most interesting cases authors Gordon Stein and Marie MacNee highlight involve scientific fraud. The 12-foot brontosaur found preserved in ice in Colorado in 1929, for example. It turned out to be a wax specimen left behind by a prankster.
Especially bold and puzzling was the claim of Sloan Kettering researcher William Summerlin, who in 1974 produced two white mice with black patches on their skin - the result, Summerlin said, of a skin transplant with black mice as donors. An assistant noted, however, that the patches had been applied with a black felt-tipped pen.
A more sophisticated ruse was concocted by former Time magazine science editor David Rorvik. In a popular 1978 book, Rorvik asserted that an elderly millionaire named Max had succeeded in having himself cloned in a tropical lab, with an anonymous gynecologist masterminding the whole affair. Despite the suspicious secrecy surrounding Rorvik's claim, the tale was virtually legitimized by the media, including the TV show Today.
Hoaxes!, while entertaining and enlightening, is not exactly exhaustive, as it focuses mostly on well-known cases. More alarmingly, it is sometimes downright sloppy. The text describing the supposed boundaries of the Bermuda Triangle differs wildly from the map purporting to show the area; various entries omit important chronological data. Still, this pop introduction to the fraud phenomenon is a good reminder that you can't believe everything you're told. Not excluding this very article. That Colorado brontosaur? I made it up.
Hoaxes! Dupes, Dodges and other Dastardly Deceptions, by Gordon Stein and Marie J. MacNee: US$13.95. Visible Ink Press: (800) 776 6265, +1 (313) 961 2242.
STREET CRED
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