QUESTION OF THE WEEK -

Q: How do you spot a fake?

A: The editor of the creation-centered Answers Research Journal has intercepted the first attempt at discrediting and ridiculing the journal: a fake geology paper that was submitted as part of an informal online contest.

Powered by Answers in Genesis, the Answers Research Journal is a scientific and theological forum for upholding and developing the Creation and Flood models. The fake paper, “A New Method for Determining the Maximum Age of Mostly Single-Phase Rocks,” didn’t scam ARJ editor Dr. Andrew Snelling, who immediately caught the 3,500-word paper and confronted the author electronically.

We won’t divulge the submitter’s name (which he lied about) or contact information, except to say he is a confirmed PhD materials scientist formerly affiliated with Queens University Belfast who says he has published papers in Physical Review B and Physical Review Letters. Submitting his ARJ paper, he wrote, “I have written a short article on a new method for determining the age of rocks that does not depend in any way on isotope decay. Some of the text is perhaps slightly technical. Still, I hope you would consider the paper for publication in Answers Research Journal.”

After looking at the paper, Dr. Snelling answered the submitter via e-mail, lodging several scientific criticisms of the paper.

How was the fake paper caught? Find out in Caught in the Act!

Also, visit the Answers Research Journal site for yourself. Be sure to review the seven papers already published in Volume 1 for free online. Then, check back soon for another batch of papers to come over the next few months.

News to Note Quick Look

ET at the Vatican: Alien life may exist, says Father Gabriel Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory and labeled by the BBC as “the Pope’s chief astronomer.” Read more.

Childish things: In astrophysicist Albert Einstein’s last year of life, he wrote a letter describing (in German) his cynical views on God, religion, and Scripture. Read more.

Also: smarter than a fifth-grade ape, finding the earth, and the half-full glass. Read more.