Magical Pixie Dust

Magical Pixie Dust



Originally shared by Irina T.

Junonium, Victorium, Occultum, Hibernium, etc. 

"In the popular imagination, science proceeds with great leaps of discovery — new planets, new cures, new elements. In reality, though, science is a long, grueling process of trial and error, in which tantalizing false discoveries constantly arise and vanish on further examination. These failures can teach us as much — or more — than its successes. The field of chemistry is littered with them. Today only 118 elements have been documented, but hundreds more have been “discovered” over the years — named, publicly trumpeted, and sometimes even included in textbooks — only to be exposed as bogus with better tools, or when a fraud was sniffed out. Their stories, sprinkled with stubborn pride, analytical incompetency, precipitate haste, amateurish error, and even practical joking, read like a catalog of the ways science can go awry, and how it moves forward nonetheless. Here are some illustrative “lost element” stories and their discoverers — and what we can learn in spite of them"

See more at: http://blog.oup.com/2015/03/false-discoveries-chemistry-progress-science/#sthash.Qa3ii68v.dpuf
http://blog.oup.com/2015/03/false-discoveries-chemistry-progress-science/#sthash.Qa3ii68v.hpvt

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