So, apparently, did Isaac Newton. Gould says that "Newton put the data together falsely to support at least three central statement that he could not prove."
艾萨克·牛顿显然也这么做。古尔德说:“牛顿拼凑数据,以此证明了至少三个自己无法证明的重要论点。”
And so, apparently, did Claudius Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer, whose master work, the Almagest,summed up the case for a solar system that had the earth as its center. Recent studies indicate that Ptolemy either faked some key data or resorted heavily to the finagle factor.
此外,希腊天文学家克劳迪厄斯·托勒密显然也这么做了。他的杰作《大综合论》概括了各种论点,建立了地心宇宙体系。近期的研究表明,托勒密不是凭空臆造了某些重要数据,就是大量采用了欺诈手法。
All this is important because the finagle factor is still at work. In the saccharin controversy, for example, it was remarked that all the studies sponsored by the sugar industry found that the artificial sweetener was unsafe, while all the studies sponsored by the diet food industry found nothing wrong with saccharin.
这一切都很重要,因为欺诈因素仍在起作用。例如,在有关糖精利弊的争论中,有人指出, 制糖业所赞助的研究都无一例外地发现人造甜味剂不安全,而药疗食品制造业所赞助的研究同样无一例外地发现糖精没有任何危害。