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History
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Original article citation: Nature 396," (1998). - Categories: History
- Recommended by : Steven Corneliussen on 10/17/2007 07:53PM GMT
Whether or not slaveholder Thomas Jefferson paradoxically merits remembrance as history's greatest human rights idealist, and whether or not he fathered the last child of Sally Hemings, whom he owned under grotesque, perverted laws then in force, this genetic-science report contributed importantly to historical understanding by showing that _someone_ carrying Jefferson family DNA fathered the child. This scientific report contributed importantly even though Nature's misleading headline, "Jefferson fathered slave's last child," propagated misunderstanding worldwide by seeming plainly to invoke what neither the authors nor their text ever invoked: the full authority of science, alone, for what was actually a historical interpretation of molecular findings. The report is thus a classic in biohistory, and its headline a classic case study for science communicators. -Steven T. Corneliussen, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab), Newport News, Virginia, USA - Comment on this subject: 1 comment made
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