emachina

I understand not bringing it to public attention because they were researching it. It's the "in secret" part that makes me wonder. And last I heard Lucy, while an interesting fossil find, was disproven to be linked to humans as was once claimed. Could be wrong about Lucy, but I've read papers dissenting that Lucy was a hominid, but was in fact a separate species.

Ninja48

What are they going to do in secret anyway? Fake the fossil with their super evil science powers?

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emachina

Super evil science powers? lol. Not likely. But I wouldn't put it past publicity seekers to flub tests or dispose of results that don't lead to the conclusions they wanted, all in an effort to make the fossil seem older or more important than it really is. We'll just wait and see and let scientific journals review their findings. Until that happens, these scientists are enjoying their fifteen minutes of fame.

Matthekage

Just another victory for science and another nail in the creationists coffin.

Science rocks!

GOGOGO!

Miburo

Highly unlikely, since they'd be found out pretty quickly due to the whole peer review thing. Which would ruin their careers and make them a complete joke, at best.

It's much more likely that they were spending that time making as damn sure as possible that they were right before saying anything about it, to avoid making fools of themselves.

emachina

Very possible, very, very possible they poured over their notes, doted their i's and crossed their t's. I'm probably just more jaded than you all. As I gave in my examples, I remember when scientists "discovered" cold fusion. Much like these scientists, they became instant celebrities. Cashed in a bit. Enjoy their fame. Until...it was found out their experiments couldn't be duplicated.

I'm not saying these scientists are publicity seekers. But articles I've read say the media blitz they used to showcase their findings was highly unusual. That sets off my skepticism alarm. These guys could very well have all the verifiable proof they'll ever need, they feel they need some publicity to get the word out they found such an important scientific discovery, and I'm just the joker on the sidelines trying to piss on their parade. If that's the case, more power to them. I'll eat crow and flat out admit I was wrong about their intentions.

But scientific review moves slowly, slowly enough that they could cash in, do the tv talk show circuit, make a bunch of money, before the rest of scientific community could say "Wait, nope, you're findings are wrong". Has happened before, could be happening now. Just saying cause I've seen it before.

Yawn. If you're going to accuse me of being a bible thumper, at least have the balls to flat out say it. Don't go back, edit my post, and they use some retarded cheer. I didn't bring religion into this, because quite frankly, if this is 100% valid it doesn't affect my beliefs in the slightest. In fact, all I've said about this whole deal is that these scientists could be using this to make money and gain publicity. So fuck you and go jerk off to Dawkins. Kay.

kluang

Scientist just tools for the Illuminati

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emachina

Oh God, That made me laugh. Paul 2012!

Miburo

You also have to take into account the media bias that goes along with this kind of shit. There is a pretty huge bias from the religious against anything evolution related. "Secret studying" could simply mean "studying" with a negative twist to make it purposely sound shady. Researching and working on shit years before publicly announcing anything about it isn't uncommon or shady, after all.

There really isn't any reason to be skeptical about anything just yet. While it's a neat discovery, it isn't that awesome. So it really doesn't matter. If it ends up being "fake" or whatever, then we'll find out soon enough.

Demi-God

Anybody in the UK, watch this documentary -> http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...stor_The_Link/

It's by David Attenborough, explains a lot about the whole thing.

Anyone not in the UK, download it or something.

Miburo

Post the cliff note version, plz.

Demi-God

Fook it.

Have some Wikipedia. =]

For all of you who can't see it on the BBC site, I'm downloading it now and I'll upload it soon.

emachina

Agreed. We'll see where this discovery lands in a few months or so. Truth be told, I hope it is real. Massive discoveries like this are few and far between. I tend to gravitate towards spacial discoveries now, because it seems like all the really massive stuff has already been discovered here on Earth.

And, well, just yesterday scientists released details on a moderate sized black hole they're observing. Eats up more mass than two Earth's every second, if I remember correctly. While cool as hell, it's something I'll never live to see first hand. At least with this fossil, I maybe able to look at it someday.