Discovery Channel on the new Shroud tests

Sembra che mi abbiano copiato. Insomma, l’articolo pubblicato sul sito di Discovery Channel è l’unico resoconto accurato sui nuovi esami che Oxford ha fatto.

In questi ultimi giorni siamo stati inondati da articoli spazzatura che riportavano solo falsità e tanta pubblicità per il nuovo film di David Rolfe. È comprensibile che lui, da produttore di documentari, faccia operazioni di marketing. Tuttavia, la scienza - quella vera e accademica - è su un altro pianeta.

Nessun giornale - o quasi - ha mai riportato le parole di Ramsey e Jull. Parole che, invece, avete potuto leggere su questo blog un mese fa.

Scrive Discovery Channel:

Ramsey, a top expert in the use of carbon dating in archeological research, is skeptical the new theory will prove that the carbon dating tests were inaccurate.

"I keep an open mind--as I would about any scientific investigation. However, my strong intuition, based on my experience in this field, is that the new hypothesis will not challenge the accuracy of the original radiocarbon dating exercise," Ramsey said in a statement.

E Jull rincara la dose:

"There is nothing new, as far as I know, which would change the situation. These ideas have been raised previously and none has been shown to have any merit. Many hypotheses, such as contamination, fire changing the results and more dubious assertions have been made, but none has seriously challenged the 1988 dating,"

E la giornalista conclude:

Indeed, numerous theories, such as a plastic coating built up on the linen by millions of tiny micro-organisms, have been presented to explain how the radiocarbon tests could have been inaccurate. All have been rejected by the scientific community.

In 1998, Ramsey himself tested the possibility that carboxylation of the cellulose in the linen during the 1532 fire could have produced a younger dating, but concluded that "carboxylation is not a systematic source of error in the dating of cellulose-containing materials such as the linen in the Shroud of Turin."

In breve: Rolfe cerca di fare pubblicità al suo documentario. Ramsey e Jull sono uomini di scienza. Quella vera.

giovedì 28 febbraio 2008