Les Jones

Science > Junk Science

ERIC RAYMOND: Thomas Kuhn's "Structure of Scientific Revolutions" is flawed. Kuhn popularized the concept of the paradigm shift, which he claims is generational in the sciences. Raymond shows counter-examples in which major scientific ideas changed in much less time.

James Franklin has a more thorough criticism of Kuhn:

Kuhn's success is also an instance of the enduring appeal of theomachy, a mode of explanation which worked so brilliantly for Marx and Freud, and, long before, for Homer. What was previously thought to be a continuous and uninteresting succession of random events is discovered to be a conflict of a finite number of hidden gods (classes, complexes, paradigms, as the case may be), who manipulate the flux of appearances to their own advantage, but whose machinations may be uncovered by the elect to whom the key has been revealed.

UNCLE CECIL: Did John Dillinger really die outside the Biograph Theater? This is more urban legend or conspiracy theory than science, but I thought it was interesting. I had heard the theory that the FBI killed someone other than the real Dillinger, but I didn't realize how flimsy the evidence was.

SLATE: The End of Mystery: The encroachment of science on fantasy's last redoubts. How science is confirming or refuting some old mysteries. In the case of the Dauphin, DNA testing confirmed that his death was not faked:

Only three weeks before the church revealed its Fatima secret, a pair of geneticists announced that they had resolved the mystery of the Lost Dauphin. In 1795, the 10-year-old son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette died in prison. Or did he? As soon as the boy was reported dead, stories arose that the real dauphin had been rescued and a substitute left in his cell. People have been arguing about little Louis XVII for 200 years. Hundreds of books address the mystery, including Huckleberry Finn, and a long line of claimants has intrigued their contemporaries. Indeed, one claimant is buried in the Netherlands under a headstone that identifies him as the heir to the French throne.

But scientists have now compared DNA from locks of Marie Antoinette's hair with DNA extracted from the heart of the boy who died in the French prison. They match. The Lost Dauphin has been found, and disappointed romantics will have to take what succor they can from the unlikely fact that a succession of people harbored the little prince's desiccated heart as a curio for so long.