Dr. Melba Ketchum, a veterinarian and geneticist from Texas,
along with a team of scientists and forensics and pathology professionals from several
universities and laboratories, announced and
published the results of a five-year study of over 100 samples collected
throughout North America, proving that the continent is home to a previously
unknown hominid (proposed name: Homo sapiens cognatus) that has homo sapiens for his mother, while the father is - another
unknown hominid.
Sounds amazing? It sure is...
If you believe a professional who makes a living by analyzing
DNA, the thoroughness of this analysis is far beyond previous studies that have
resulted in the recognition of new species: the complete sequencing of 20 and
partial sequencing of 10 mitochondrial genomes ("maternal"), and complete
sequencing of three nuclear genomes ("both parents"). Methodology and
treatment of samples were in accordance with the highest standards of science
and forensics. Some of the labs were kept "blind" to the nature of the
study and confirmed the results. DNA samples taken from scientists, technicians
and people who collected and sent the samples were used as controls.
Of course, you can always choose to simply not believe. To
call her a plain liar, her and the coauthors, professionals and academics from:
North Louisiana Criminalistics Laboratory, Integrated Forensic Laboratories,
Euless, Texas; Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences; Microscopy &
Imaging Center at Texas A & M University; Huguley Pathology Consultants,
Fort Worth, TX; Wayne State University, Michigan; University of North Texas
Health Science Center ...
The article was published in the first issue of a new
magazine DeNovo - what Skeptics
laugh at as the conclusive proof she's a fraud. Her claims that many respected
magazines did not even want to read the paper, that some ridiculed it, while
parts of her study leaked from one of them ... are, I suppose, accepted as „expected,
since her paper MUST BE BULLSHIT, because it is about Bigfoot. They must have read
it thoroughly, and found fatal flaws in its methodology, samples...well, science,
and rejected it for scientific reasons”. Anyone believes THAT? And calls
himself skeptic at the same time?
For me, the “„new magazine” and “self-published” thing is
much less of a surprise than if it was published in, say, Science magazine.
These men would stop
Darwin. Now it's a war, and not
the first one of the kind.
Ketchum claims it's not self-publishing. She admits she
acquired and renamed an existing journal, while the peer review was done before
that, in another journal where the editor was advised by the lawyers not to
publish the paper because of the controversy, although it passed the review
process.
About the paper being long overdue, numerous delays and large
negative campaign against the publication, which lasted for two years – started
at the very the moment she sent it to the first magazine – we will learn more
in the future. She said she has all the documentation about everything,
including e-mails from the labs that performed the blind tests („What is this
you sent us!? You found the new species?!“).
She has not made the
raw data and samples available yet, but before the Sasquatch gets his U.S.
citizenship, voting rights and tax obligations, and before the gargantuan U.S. logging
industry gets kicked out from the vast forests of the US northwest, it is
necessary that other scientists gain insight into the raw data and samples, and
come to the same conclusions.
And even before that, more importantly, they will have to want to
do it.
See also:
“Matilda” sleeping:
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