Update: Got a very nice and very prompt note back from the people who run the place. Apparently they’ve removed this material.
My wife and I just got back from a very nice vacation in Nova Scotia, which is very beautiful (and much cooler than Richmond in August). Among other things (such as rafting on the tidal bore in the Bay of Fundy, which I highly recommend), we visited the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where, as the name suggests, you can see tons of fossils. The site includes both a museum and a stretch of beach you can walk along and spot fossils in their natural habitat, so to speak. There are guides to show you things and help you figure out what you’re seeing. On the whole, it’s quite interesting and educational. If you’re nearby, it’s definitely worth a visit.
The site is run by a nonprofit educational organization. As usual, they get part of their revenue from a gift shop. Among the things you can buy in the gift shop are pretty polished stones.
So far so good. Now for the curmudgeonliness. The polished stones are accompanied by this pamphlet.
As I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone who’s reading this, the last sentence of each description is complete nonsense. Stones and crystals do not have any effect on the human psyche.
I understand that the organization needs to raise money, but is it too much to ask that they refrain from actively promoting pseudoscience in doing so? The gift shop does not stock Creationist books that claim the Earth is 6000 years old, presumably because to do so would undermine their educational mission. This may be somewhat different in degree but not at all different in kind.
This sort of thing might seem harmless, but it’s not. People really believe in things like this. If they didn’t, there wouldn’t be Web sites like healingcrystals.com (I’d rather not link to it) that will sell you crystals to cure hundreds of different ailments. Look at this screen shot, for instance.
This is a link to 728 items you can buy that purport to help you if you have cancer but in fact do nothing. People with cancer (among other things) are being fleeced and are being given false hope by this sort of nonsense. For a science educator to give any sort of seal of approval to this is not OK.
As my colleague Matt Trawick pointed out, the last item on the list is particularly interesting, in a Catch-22 sort of way. Suppose that you buy some sodalite and it does in fact cause you “to become logical and rational.” Would you then go ask for your money back?
By the way, I’ve sent a note to the organization that runs the Fossil Cliffs outlining my concern. I’ll post something if I hear anything back. (See Update at the top.)
I experienced something similar at the Manchester Museum. Reasonably good museum, but the same magic stones in the gift shop. I did get a response to a complaint; I’ll have to dig it up.
I also complained about the wrong location of Hanover on a map; it was way too far to the west. Since I’ve seen this several times, it is probably a case of one mistake being copied several times. (Map makers do introduce deliberate mistakes into maps, usually small dead-end streets which do not exist, so that they can easily prove copyright infringement. On a similar note, after a referee noted a typo in Eq. 50 or whatever, I thought it might be a good idea to deliberately insert one in order to check how diligent the referee was.)