Nikola Tesla Books
CHAPTER TWO eree system and we have a tendency to accept this process as being successful. It is true that occasionally genuine errors are published. Once they appear in print there is a danger that they will perpetuate themselves from publication to publication. Yet, in the end, an incompatibility between several scientific observations or a contradiction between theory and experiment leads a careful researcher to retrace the steps back to the error which found its way into the original paper. But small slips and occasional errors are a different matter from deliberate deception. If a scientist were to carry out a conscious plan to change or even invent experimental results, would the resulting fraud be that easy to expose? After all, if a research worker makes the claim that a series of measurements have been made or a particular phenomenon observed, few scientists would demand to visit the laboratory and see the hard evidence with their own eyes. Much is taken on trust. If a hoax were to be carefully planned and executed, then the forged results would be internally consistent and would easily fit into an existing theory. Once formulated these fraudulent data could well prove a false trail for a great many scientists. I recalled that there had been precedents - the Piltdown skull had been assumed genuine by many experts. Arthur Koestler had written about a hoax in biology in The Case of the Midwife Toad, although he felt that the alleged fabrication had been unjustly condemned. In the seventies it had even been discovered that false results had been reported by the eminent psychologist Sir Cyril Burt. Burt had been the prime mover behind the modern trend for psychological testing and was particularly interested in the relative significance of environmental upbringing and genetic make-up in such factors as IQ. Some of Burt's most significant work had involved sets of identical twins who had been split up by adoption at an early age. Since their genetic make-up could be assumed to be identical, any differences in their abilities should be the result of different home environment. Burt drew conclusions from his observations which influenced a whole generation of psychologists and filtered down to new teaching methods in schools. Imagine the horror when, after Burt's death, it was discovered that many of these identical twins had simply never existed. In order to present effective sta26
