评论
打印
Gould went back to Morton's original data and concluded that the results were an example of the finagle factor at work. "I have reanalyzed Morton's data," Gould wrote last week in thejournal, Science, "and I find that they are a mixture of assumption and finagling, controlled, probably unconsciously, by his prejudiced way of ranking - his folks on top, slaves on the bottom."
古尔德重新研究了莫顿的原始数据，得出结论，莫顿的研究结果正是在科研中搞欺骗的一个例子。“我重新分析了莫顿的数据，”古尔德上星期在《科学》刊物上写道，“发现它们是假设与欺骗的混合体。它们也许在不知不觉中受到他那怀有偏见的等级划分方式的左右——他自己的种族优越，奴隶们最为低劣。”
Morton reached his conclusions, Gould found, by leaving out embarrassing data, using incorrect procedures, making simple arithmetical mistakes(always in his favor) and changing his criteria - again, always in favor of his argument.
古尔德发现，莫顿是通过剔除对己不利的数据，采用不正确的程序，造成简单的计算错误（差错的结果总是对其有利），以及更改标准——这种更改同样总是有利于其观点——等等做法，而获得其结论的。
Left alone, that finding would not be particularly disturbing. Morton has been thoroughly discredited by now. Scientists do not believe that brain size reflects intelligence, and Morton'brand of raw racism is out of style.
孤立地看，这一发现不会令人特别不安。时至今日，莫顿早已声名狼藉。科学家们不相信大脑的大小能反映智力的高低，莫顿那些赤裸裸的人种优劣论的货色早已无人问津。
But Gould goes on to say that Morton' story is only "a noticeable example of a common problem in scientific work." Some of the leading figures in science are believed to have used the finagle factor.
但古尔德接着说，莫顿的情况仅仅是“科学研究中一个常见问题的显著例子”。据信，科学界一些重要人物都有过欺诈行为。
One of them is Gregor Mendel, the Bohemian monk whose work is the foundation of modern genetics. The success of Mendel's work was based on finding a three-to -one radio in the dominant and recessive characteristics of hybrid plants he was breeding. He found that radio. But scientists recently have gone back to his data and have found that the results are literally too good to be true. Like Morton, Mendel gave himself the benefit of the doubt.
其中之一是波西米亚僧人乔治·孟德尔，他的学说为现代遗传学奠定了基础。孟德尔的研究成功的基础在于，他在自己培育的杂交植物中发现了生物显性和隐性之特征的三比一的比率关系。他发现了这个比率。但科学家们近来重新研究了他的数据，发现这些结果实在是太完美了，令人无法相信。像莫顿一样，孟德尔在证据不足的情况下就肯定了自己的假设。
