When academics go bad

[MG1962]

On another forum I was reading an article about Planet X authored by Dutch physicist Jacco van der Worp.

This got me thinking about past examples were seemingly well rounded researches and excellent academics suddenly seem to go of the rail

Fred Hoyle - An exceptional British Astronomer of his time declared Archaeopteryx a forgery

Steven Jones - His paper on the 911 collapse seems to go totally against the bulk of current thinking on the topic

Can anyone think of other examples, and perhaps consider what comes over these people, to suddenly present such counter views, often well out of their field of expertise?

[defaultdotxbe]

copernicus syndrome (yes, i just invented that)

they all want to be a renaissance man and overturn modern understanding

[CHF]

Steven Jones - His paper on the 911 collapse seems to go totally against the bulk of current thinking on the topic

As I understand it, Stephen Jones was always a flake.

Cold fusion, his Jesus-visited-America paper, and now his thermite ramblings that he refuses to peer review.

Not too many academics would devote time to the horse dung that he has.

[jhunter1163]

The people responsible for the Piltdown Man hoax were affiliated with the British Museum, weren't they?

And I'm sure the Hitler diaries ruined more than one career.

[defaultdotxbe]

As I understand it, Stephen Jones was always a flake.

Cold fusion, his Jesus-visited-America paper, and now his thermite ramblings that he refuses to peer review.

Not too many academics would devote time to the horse dung that he has.
actually as far as cold fusion jones was on the money

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muon-catalyzed_fusion

his conclusions showed that it was not a viable source of energy (which some truthers now see as an attempt to kill "free energy" and proof that hes a shill)

[kookbreaker]

actually as far as cold fusion jones was on the money

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muon-catalyzed_fusion

his conclusions showed that it was not a viable source of energy (which some truthers now see as an attempt to kill "free energy" and proof that hes a shill)

Read 'Bad Science' by Gary Taubes, that was not the tale Jones was telling other scientists. Jones only looks good when placed next to the science atrocities of Pons & Fleischmann.

[LashL]

This looks like a thread worth bumping.

So...

BUMP

[uk_dave]

The so-called N rays (or N-rays) were a phenomenon described by French scientist René-Prosper Blondlot but subsequently found to be illusory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-rays

[Anti-sophist]

copernicus syndrome (yes, i just invented that)

they all want to be a renaissance man and overturn modern understanding

It's narcissm complexes, mostly. You guys would be -utterly- amazed at how similar conspiracy theorists and sci.math or sci.physics crackpots are. I'm starting to believe they are all different flavors of the same mental disorders. The concept they are of unique historical importance seems to be highly common (which is narcissm), and the idea that the reason their ideas are rejected is because of some highly-powerful establishment (which is paranoia) are both omnipresent.

[ref]

This got me thinking about past examples were seemingly well rounded researches and excellent academics suddenly seem to go of the rail


Hwang Woo-Suk is quite famous example of so called bad professor.

"Research by South Korea's top human cloning scientist - hailed as a breakthrough earlier this year - was fabricated, colleagues have concluded."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4554422.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-Suk

[Hutch]

We can go back even farther. Issac Newton, often proclaimed as one of the greatest minds ever, spent a great deal of his time trying to prove that Alchemy was viable.