      Home |
Today's Commentary:By Lou Guzzo Dixy Lee Ray Disparaged Phonies Like Cousteau and MeadMy longtime colleague and dear friend, Dr. Dixy Lee Ray, seldom expressed her disdain over oceanographers, like herself, or scientists in general, but she sometimes had severe criticism for a few. And those few drew her ire because they committed the unpardonable sin in science --- they faked results of experiments or experiences or they manufactured “facts” to support untenable theories. True to her character, Dixy never voiced her criticism of other scientists in public or where the news media could hear her. But she confided that criticism to me and other close associates on occasion --- and did so only when prompted and when she could be sure that her words would not be reported. As a world-renowned scientist in her own right, she directed her anger at two in particular, because, as she said, “they were such publicity hounds.” One was “the pride of the newsreel operators,” Jacques Cousteau, the French oceanographer, whose underwater films garnered him a ton of publicity and acclaim. The other was an equally noted international figure, Margaret Mead, the anthropologist, noted for her work and her writings on the people of Samoa. It is important to note that Dixy’s criticism of the two scholars was voiced long before others leveled serious charges of scientific chicanery against both Cousteau and Mead. In Cousteau’s case, even several of his underwater team members turned against him and accused him of faking many scenes that were used in newsreels and the production of a documentary on sea life that was seen on U.S. and Canadian television and was highly praised by reviewers --- reviewers who were not scientists, by the way. I remember Dixy’s specific words concerning Cousteau in one instance. She had seen his TV documentary and other filmed works and said: “He is not only a faker and an embarrassment to other scientists. He takes personal credit for the work of others, whose films he has utilized as his own; he has never given them credit for their work. What an insufferable ego!” It’s too bad that she never had an opportunity, as a noted oceanographer herself, to confront Cousteau and deliver her criticism directly. However, other marine scientists, including Cousteau’s own team members, have succeeded in recent years to point out the Frenchman’s shortcomings. The criticism of Mead has been of a similar nature, but in her case Dixy knew from other anthropologists of her acquaintance that Mead’s Samoan reports were inaccurate and misleading, mainly because she made no attempt to live with Samoan families, preferring to spend her time on the island with white foreign officials. One of her severest critics, a longtime anthropologist who had studied the Samoan civilization in depth, said Mead “had been hoaxed by young Samoan women giving false and mischievous answers to her many questions about their sexual mores --- and had reported those false responses in her book, ‘Coming of Age in Samoa,’ which established her reputation in the Western World.” I wish that Dixy, who died in 1994, had been willing to call a spade a spade in public and that other legitimate scientists would not be so reluctant to blow a whistle on the world’s scientific phonies. |