Scientists sequence Black Death bacteria DNA, admit they were wrong

Researchers have sequenced the DNA of plague bacteria from the bodies of English victims of the Black Death. The bits of DNA they obtained looked surprisingly modern, leaving the question of why the disease was so deadly uanswered.

<a href='http://meincmagazine.com/science/news/2011/08/scientists-sequence-black-death-bacteria-dna-admit-they-were-wrong.ars'>Read the whole story</a>

 

[taraba]

How about that? Scientist makes new discovery, has to revise a past assumption. No problem, in fact a pleasant surprise.

So will we hear from all the religious nutjobs denouncing the findings and either saying the Black Plague didn't happen, or that The Devil™ is messing with the results and really it was wicked people who God™ smote?

People don't have to believe "God smites" the wicked with illness (an assumption that religion was fighting at least 3000 years ago, by the way) to be critics of science. It's childish of science fans like you to say "my way or the highway" -- why not be critical of science as well as everything else? That would only be reasonable.

(And, for the record, I myself am not very impressed with this magical "Science is always right because it's always wrong!" as per the first paragraph of your comment. Neither am I Christian.)

Well, science adopts the best explanation that can be proven and reproducible for phenomena. The scientific community will move away from wrong assumptions over time. So science is already critical of itself. No one ever claims that current scientific assumptions are absolutely right but they have to be proved wrong first. You can go off and believe any kind of metaphysical crystal worshiping stuff without any proof, but one of the great things about science is that if you can prove that these things have a measurable effect, science will accept that proof. But if your thing has actually been proven false and still want to believe, then you're firmly in the unscientific camp.