According to this article at the New York Times, Marc Hauser, researcher and author of a book exploring the evolutionary basis of morality, apparently fabricated data on his research project looking into the cognitive abilities of a bunch of monkeys.
Now, he may be vindicated, only having screwed up somehow, and not stupidly cheating and falsifying his work, but the irony is crushingly astounding.
The title of his book: “Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong.” is hilarious now.
Even if he is vindicated, or if his experiments can be recreated with similar results, I find this to be a great example of why healthy skepticism or at least, admitting the universe is a generally unsolvable conundrum, is a fun and wise course.
Gravity you say? Magic.
Light? Magic.
Electricity? Little particles.
Bacteria? Tiny universes.
The more you know, the more you know you don't know.
