Mich. boy finds 1981 Smithsonian error

[#98QBKiller]

Mich. boy finds 1981 Smithsonian error


Is a fifth-grader smarter than the Smithsonian?



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080403/...he_smithsonian

Mich. boy finds 1981 Smithsonian error
Wed Apr 2, 10:10 PM ET



Is fifth-grader Kenton Stufflebeam smarter than the Smithsonian?

On a winter break trip with his family to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, the 11-year-old southwestern Michigan boy noticed that a notation, in bold lettering, mistakenly identified the Precambrian as an era.

Since it opened in 1981, millions of people have paraded past the museum's Tower of Time, a display involving prehistoric time. Kenton was the first to point out the error.

Kenton, who lives in Allegan but attends Alamo Elementary School near Kalamazoo, said his fifth-grade teacher, John Chapman, had nearly made the same mistake about the Precambrian in a classroom earth-science lesson before catching himself.

"I knew Mr. Chapman wouldn't tell all these students" bad information, the boy told the Kalamazoo Gazette for a story published Wednesday.

So Kevin Stufflebeam took his son to the museum's information desk to report Kenton's concern on a comment form.

Last week, the boy received a letter from the museum acknowledging that his observation was "spot on."

"The Precambrian is a dimensionless unit of time, which embraces all the time between the origin of Earth and the beginning of the Cambrian Period of geologic time," the letter says.

The solution to the problem would not involve advanced science but rather simply painting over the word "era," the note says.

While no previous visitors to the museum had brought up the error, it has long rankled the paleobiology department's staff, who noticed it even before the Tower of Time was erected 27 years ago, said Lorraine Ramsdell, educational technician for the museum.

"The question is, why was it put up with that on it in the first place?" Ramsdell said.

Excited as he was to receive the correspondence from museum officials, he couldn't help but point out that it was addressed to Kenton Slufflebeam.

In Allegany.

___

On the Net:

Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History: http://www.mnh.si.edu/

[PleaseBlitz]

Bush's fault.

[BigMike619]

Bush's fault.

I just read this article and the first thing I thought was....


I hate you.

[Mass_SkinsFan]

It's amazing to see the things that our historical sites and museums get wrong. There are a couple books out there about some of them, actually.

Probably one of the more interesting ones happened after the filming of the Hollywood movie... Gettysburg. The monuments on the national battlefield had to be moved for filming, and when the unit markers for the Union line were put back, many, if not most of them were put in the wrong places. The National Park Service has since fixed them, but for a couple of years the battle line was incorrect.

[joeknows]

my dad would have told me, "what?..... you think your smarter than the smithsonian?KEEP MOVING!!.."

[ntotoro]

Brunell's fault.

[PokerPacker]

"...and t-rex had big teeth to open up coconuts"

exactly what i was trying to tell the museum of natural history, but they wouldn't listen!

[SUSkinsFan]

Good for the kid. But you REALLY have to wonder how a mistake like that could have been made.

[SkinsOrlando]

I'll never be allowed back after trying to hump Jumbo the elephant.

[MurrayH81]

Bush's fault.

Actually, as noted in the article, the mislabeling occurred 27 year ago, which would make it the year 1981, which would make it Reagan's fault.

[dfitzo53]

I love the fact that they followed up the error by misspelling his name and address. That's classic. (Of course who knows how difficult his handwriting may have been to read.)

[Metalhead]

I'm confused. The article and Smithsonian written response claim:

"The Precambrian is a dimensionless unit of time, which embraces all the time between the origin of Earth and the beginning of the Cambrian Period of geologic time,"

Isn't that a contradiction? They just gave what was dimensionless a set time frame. And Precambrian is not a unit of time, only a name. Do scientists say "when this next precambrian has passed" for example? That sounds lacking of information.

[dfitzo53]

I'm confused. The article and Smithsonian written response claim:

"The Precambrian is a dimensionless unit of time, which embraces all the time between the origin of Earth and the beginning of the Cambrian Period of geologic time,"

Isn't that a contradiction? They just gave what was dimensionless a set time frame. And Precambrian is not a unit of time, only a name. Do scientists say "when this next precambrian has passed" for example? That sounds lacking of information.

The Cambrian Period was a specific time span. Precambrian refers to anything before the Cambrian Period, not a specific time period. (Just like prehistoric refers to any time before recorded history, but not a set time period.)

The issue is that era has a specific meaning in the study of Earth's geologic history. It's a subdivision of an eon. The Mesozoic Era, for example, is the time period during which the dinosaurs lived. The Precambrian is not a subdivision of an eon, but the time before the Cambrian Period.

I hope that made sense.