The Museum of Hoaxes. - book review

Science News,  Feb 8, 2003  

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ALEX BOESE

This collection of pranks, stunts, deceptions, and other stories tracks the myriad ways people have been duped from medieval times to the present. It seems no one is immune. Boese details schemes that fooled The New York Times, Jimmy Carter, and the Queen of England. Mischief makers have convinced the public that a woman could give birth to rabbits and a hen could lay square eggs. Boese also details a recent scientific fraud, in which a fossil found in China passed muster, among some scientists, as the missing link between dinosaurs and birds. In this whimsical tour, Boese illustrates how hoaxes persist--especially today with the aid of the Internet. This book will probably reveal to many readers that some "facts" they thought they knew aren't true. Dutton, 2002, 266 p., hardcover, $19.95.

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