Hyping The Next Big Missing Link

Publicizing a scientific discovery is important, but only to the extent that it contributes to the public understanding. However in cases such as these, when the media makes discoveries seem more fantastic than they are, it is a detriment to public understanding. I'm going to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal.

I have to agree that the hype around this fossil does not help the public understanding. With all of the "Missing Link Found!" type headlines, it will only cause the myth of the "missing link" to gain more steam. It causes further missunderstanding when a find like this is hyped way beyond its real unique contribution to science. I was interested to read the articles about the fossil when the find was announced, but was highly dissapointed to find how the announcement was hyped and blown out of proportion. More PR than science it seems.

If you've read through any of the comments posted with many of the online articles, it won't take you long to see how creationists are jumping all over this one. As it come out that the fossil really isn't the 8th wonder of the world and that the hype was overblown, they'll say things like "See, even the evolutionists can't figure out what it is they believe." since A) they look for any evolutionary "disagreement" and jump all over it and B)they see evolution as a religion opposed to there's so they must rid the world of the belief in "Evil-ution" no matter how much evidence is presented.

Short version: The hype doesn't help

First of all, the use of the words "public understanding" is misleading in itself. It gives the impression that the general public actually does in fact understand science, when the vast majority is scientifically ignorant due in large part to deficiencies in our curricula. Secondly, I think this is a misuse of "missing link." A missing link to me implies a large time gap in the fossil record has been filled, and many questions answered. However, I also have no seen the full report. Most helpful would be a 3-D reconstruction/replica of the skeleton and plausible musculature. Let’s not throw out phrases like that and get ahead of ourselves. As for those looking to this as a 'confirmation of evolution,' they will never be satisfied, because as alluded to above, proof of evolution is abundant enough as is.

Right. Because worries that the swine flu might become resistant to antiviral medication isn't based on a confirmed theory, and definitely has nothing to do with evolution.

Right, that observation is significantly independent from the theory of common descent. It is 100 percent conceivable and rational to view the processes of adaptation and mutation as not leading to macroevolution regardless of the role those observations play in macroevolution.

to me the whole evolution theory being better than creationism debate is a bunch of bull on both sides, but that's for another time, right now i would really like it if the media didn't try to play with a little 1950's chemistry set and suddenly believe they are able to call themselves scientists.

i mean yay we found a monkey on the way to becoming a human, but what does this prove, it's a monkey, it's slightly deformed, and there's still a lot of gaps to fill in the theory... hehe, good word theory, maybe the news needs a dictionary.

either way both Creationism and Darwinism takes a crapload of faith to believe in so it's kinda pointless to say that either one is the scientifically proven way to go.

Um, did the articles try to focus on Evolution vs Creationism? I think people see these things and tend to jump to conclusions that everyone is rushing to take one of 2 sides.

Another thing I wonder is if Paleontologists are ever going to make a national system of some sort, where everything goes through some type of record, so everyone is on the same page as to what was found when etc. Yeah, it would be tedious and annoying, but it seems like many of these "great finds" are often found a few decades before the hype by some amateur group, but not fully "discovered" until later.

Darwinius masillae - even its name is a blatent attempt to draw attention. Not that you can entirely blame the scientist behind its discovery. Packaging it and selling it to the media gets you face time and funding. A boring monkey with thumbs is not going to keep you employed.

The real problem here is that science is a corrupt process. It skews for results, as results gain money. This is why people fake cloning. Not because it can't be done, but because failures don't get funding and funding is necessary to do it right.

You will never have a missing link prove evolution. Evolution cannot be proved. Proof would require observation, and we cannot go back in time. You might could prove that evolution can happen, but you cannot prove that it did happen. Even the complete fossil record of all creatures and all time would not prove evolution. You cannot test and prove the past.

These press stunts are rightly ridiculed as the grant grabbing that they are.

Also, bringing up H1N1 as an example of evolution is particularly poor science since evolution denotes life and viruses are still up for debate as far as being lifeforms or not.

LOL... You know, if we put the amount of time, money and effort involved in searching for the missing link into genuine problems society faces, WE MIGHT JUST GET A FEW POSITIVE THINGS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED.

If theory of evolution is true, what will humans turn into next considering this is a non-stop chain event?

Another missing kink, I mean link.

Please, skip the hype, and I'll pass on the bullshit. If I hear another story about how "they" have discovered the missing link to...I think I will scream, but only in space where no one will hear me.

"The latest monkey find"? So what. The latest evidence tells us that humans evolved from a different gene strand than did the chimpanzee. If some still think that the chimpanzee is one of our ancestors I say, he might be yours, but he sure an Hell isn't mine.

P.S. I used "Hell" as a metaphor.

It's important to hype potentially big discoveries in any scientific field, especially those that aren't commonly considered exciting by the public. Whenever scientists get a chance to interest the general public, they should take the chance. I liken this situation to the solving of the Poincare Conjecture that had regular people talking about mathematics over lunch. How often do scientist get an opportunity to create that kind of excitement and interest. So it's understandable that so much hype has been created over this fossil, though I will say, I hope they are very sure of their findings. If they're wrong, I'm afraid that the public would just become disillusioned.

From what I've read about this find. It sounds like they found an old dead monkey. I don't see how they can say it's a missing link. It's not like it shares characteristics of two distinct species. It's just a really old and complete monkey. I'm not convinced.

It seems Scientists resent the idea that God created everything and want to disprove the existance of God by demonstrating evolution. As though this somehow will prove anything. The bible never said evolution doesn't exist, only that God created everything. They don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Ooo so, I would like to say first that - evolution has a ton of proof, we call it the fossil record, and the past century's worth of scholarily articles, disertations, and investigation of that record.

Second, all the aricles on god are pulled out of someone's head with retoric, no investigation. Now that we've gotten that out of the way.

The fossil is a media grab of course, because an actual find would have been researched, and had a couple of papers published on it, looks like they skipped that step, poo on them.

And lastly I have a bone to pick with this author.
"Right. Because worries that the swine flu might become resistant to antiviral medication isn't based on a confirmed theory, and definitely has nothing to do with evolution."
Um ... what? Really? You're really bringing up that? When its obvious already? Because check it out. Real flue does that every year, like clock work, and kills over 25k people in our country. So you know what? Next time you look at your Journalism diploma on the wall? Cry, cause you didn't listen to your professors, and wasted a lot of money.

Firsts, news is not science and relies on sensationalizing the content to attract people's attention. Second, science should try not to form opinions and stick to facts, that way there's less to rant about. If a scientist says, "This is the link!" They're setting themselves up for problems if they're just getting excited without thinking about it. That's why they should just stay on a technical note, no opinions, no ammo. I think the jumping and screaming is what gets to people who are already skeptical of the idea of evolution.

Inga binga binga, inga binga, binga buuunnnnnnga.

As AvengingRelic, I'm not convinced too. This animal could not be the missing link.

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