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The 'Missing-Scientist' Story Is Unbelievably Dumb (theatlantic.com) 124

Posted by BeauHD from the internet-propagated dept.
Longtime Slashdot reader mmarlett writes: The Atlantic has a long article on the story of missing scientists recently featured here on Slashdot. In short, it is an incoherent conspiracy theory that spreads wide and far, not paying any attention to boundaries of time, space, or area of expertise. "Which is all to say that another piece of flagrant nonsense has ascended to the highest levels of U.S. politics and media," writes the Atlantic's Daniel Engber. "To call it a conspiracy theory would be far too kind, because no comprehensive theory has been floated to explain the pattern of events. But then, even the phrase pattern of events is imprecise, because there is no pattern here at all. Given all the people who could have been roped into this narrative but weren't, any hope of finding meaning falls away. Barring any dramatic new disclosures, the mystery of the missing scientists has the dubious honor of being a sham in every way at once."

The 'Missing-Scientist' Story Is Unbelievably Dumb More | Reply

The 'Missing-Scientist' Story Is Unbelievably Dumb

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  • I agree (Score:2)

    by exa ( 27197 )

    Seems totally unrelated to me. When will these conspiracy nutcases learn? There are no ufos and this is all just coincidence.

    Right?

    • Re:I agree (Score:5, Funny)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Wednesday April 22, 2026 @04:22PM (#66107438)

      You know, there are no known scientists who worked on the Manhattan project who are still alive.

      Coincidence? I think not.

      • You know, there are no known scientists who worked on the Manhattan project who are still alive.

        Coincidence? I think not.

        Well, duh. They were all habitual breathers. It's a fact: breathing cause death -- 100% of all dead people were habitual breathers. :-)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by exa ( 27197 )

        They had unhealthy eating habits in the 1950s and there was asbestos. They got cancer and heart attacks. It's just bad luck.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by higuita ( 129722 )

        are you SURE?!?! they may be hiding!!! :D

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          Funny thing actually, apparently there is some uncertainty about whether there might be one or two still hanging around. The last known one died last year.

      • Manhattan project workers mainly died young of cancer. So did thousands of civilians who were down wind of the blast.
        • My grandpa lived well into his 70's before possibly-related prostate cancer got him. And he once guided a congressional delegation through the facility while they were cleaning up a leak. The delegation was not informed - they were carefully led around the contamination.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          That must be it.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        You know, there are no known scientists who worked on the Manhattan project who are still alive.

        Coincidence? I think not.

        I know parent was intending to be funny. However, yes, there are scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project who are still alive:
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    • Well, I don't think it is 100% coincidence, because some nontrivial fraction of these were studying UFOs. That implies they suffered from delusional thinking, correlated with other mental illness, leading to both suicidal and risk-taking tendencies.

  • Conspiracy, eh? (Score:5, Funny)

    by necro81 ( 917438 ) on Wednesday April 22, 2026 @04:09PM (#66107386) Journal

    To call it a conspiracy theory would be far too kind, because no comprehensive theory has been floated to explain the pattern of events.

    [fluffs hair on either side of head, raises hands as though trying to grasp the ephemeral just ahead]
    I don't want to say it's aliens, but...it's aliens.

  • How many dentists... (Score:3)

    by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 ) on Wednesday April 22, 2026 @04:10PM (#66107390)
    or nurses, or CPAs, or garbage men have gone missing or killed? I'm wondering if these "missing scientists" are in proportion to any other missing persons.

  • This probably does not even pan out on the statistical side. And statistics comes with anomalies on top of that.

  • The reason why this gets to the top (Score:3)

    by wakeboarder ( 2695839 ) on Wednesday April 22, 2026 @04:16PM (#66107414)

    is because everyone on the planet is too busy scrolling on their phones with zero attention span to spend the 2-4mins (gasp!) that it would take to look into it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by evanh ( 627108 )

      The reason is because Trump is a clueless idiot who fired everyone competent.

      • It's what every autocrat does, trump, xi and putin have all surrounded themselves with 'yes men'. Putin got in trouble with ukraine, his people probably told him: we'll flip ukraine with intelligence and subversion. When that didn't work they said: you can walk into ukraine and in 3 to 4 days we'll take it. They told him what he wanted to hear. Xi got in trouble with covid, everyone told him 'yeah, everything is fine' when it wasn't. They could have shut down their country but the regional governments didn'

  • Meaningless (Score:2, Insightful)

    by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) *

    This set of anomalies is meaningless because no causal link has been proved.

    In fact it never makes sense to look into anomalies unless you know what the outcome will be.

    Detectives are stupid. Science is stupid.

    Trust the Experts and whatever you do don't do your own research. If something is important the government or Fox News will let you know.

    Turn on Netflix and zone out if you have spare time.

    You ain't one of them "readers", is ya?

    • Detectives and Science are stupid, but as they are experts they must be trusted? I'm having trouble following your point.

  • pareidolia at its finest. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PhantomHarlock ( 189617 ) on Wednesday April 22, 2026 @04:19PM (#66107428)

    This is something like The Face on Mars, where author Richard C. Hoagland went down a rabbit hole and connected the dots on a whole bunch of other landscape features nearby to back up his theory that the face was actually a face. Then a later mars satellite went by and photographed it from different angles in different lighting, and lo and behold it was just light and shadow. Along with the rest of the rocks that made up his 'alien civilization'. You see what you want to see, and find patterns where there aren't any.

    In the case of the JPL scientist shot to death, that one is local to us. It involved a crazy guy who was known to be causing problems around the Crystalaire community of Llano in the previous week, and when he trespassed on the scientist's property, the cops were called, crazy guy was arrested, and then he bailed out and came back a few days later and shot Carl Grillmair, the scientist, blaming him for his arrest. It's the high desert of Los Angeles County and there's a lot of methheads and tweakers commiting breaking and entering on rural properties in order to find things to steal and fence for their next hit. A property we're involved with nearby has been broken into three times. Everyone here knows this one was totally random, and very unfortunate. Carl had the property for the unobstructed views of the night sky, and it's fairly convenient to LA, being just on the other side of the San Gabriels from JPL. It's very unfortunate, but there is no bigger story therein. Can't speak for the other cases.

    • Principle of Oddmatches. If you have a million samples, you can expect to find one-in-a-million incidents.

      So I gave this story no credence until The Atlantic denied it.

    • They (conspiracy theorist from r/UFOs) take

      1) a long period of time (the first "case" is from july 2023)
      2) they take various profession and places mashed together
      3) various situation mashed together (missing, suicided, murdered, one guy missing stating he did not want to live with his brain deteriorating etc...)
      Then suddenly they find out there is a dozen such a case.


      The thing is I would be not be surprised if you take so many different places, and people, over so many years, and check for disappear
  • Humans are good at picking out patterns. But sometimes, that pattern is something like Jesus on toast. With some silliness or government intrigue to spice it up, have the trappings for an attention grabbing story over something that is probably straight pants.
    • "Humans are good at picking out patterns."
      ...
      Demonstrates way that humans are not good at picking out patterns.

      Always cracks me up. False positives are still failures.
      Human history doesn't give me a reason to think we're particularly reliable pattern recognition networks at all.
      I do agree that in our heads, we have some tight neural circuits that are quite good at pattern recognition, though. They're just not attached to our conscious thoughts.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Sique ( 173459 )

        Demonstrates way that humans are not good at picking out patterns.

        Always cracks me up. False positives are still failures.

        Not exactly. It does only mean that people are not 100% perfect and recognizing patterns. But they are amazingly good at it, and the number of false positives is quite small. It's just confirmation bias on your side that you only notice the pattern recognizing mechanisms when they fail. But every letter you recognized in the previous post, every word you understood was a successful pattern recognition. Look at the size of data centers you need to build computers even close to the abilities the average perso

        • Not exactly. It does only mean that people are not 100% perfect and recognizing patterns. But they are amazingly good at it, and the number of false positives is quite small. It's just confirmation bias on your side that you only notice the pattern recognizing mechanisms when they fail.

          No, you didn't read.

          But every letter you recognized in the previous post, every word you understood was a successful pattern recognition.

          That's a specific portion of my brain that recognizes images. That portion of your brain is very distinct from the part of you that is conscious. When it is damaged- you can't read or recognize glyphs anymore.

          Look at the size of data centers you need to build computers even close to the abilities the average person has!

          People have good pattern recognition circuits in their brain. They're just not wired to their conscious brains.
          Human cognition is absolutely full of pattern recognition failure, even after drilling the patterns into the heads of our children throughout their entire development.

          • People have good pattern recognition circuits in their brain. They're just not wired to their conscious brains. Human cognition is absolutely full of pattern recognition failure, even after drilling the patterns into the heads of our children throughout their entire development.

            Pattern recognition is fascinating - at least to me.

            Pattern recognition can transcend into the conscious mind, especially in the minds of so called Pattern Weavers. It is a condition that is usually based on intelligent people who needed to see patterns, as a survival mechanism. And actual psychological condition,

            It's where the Pattern Weaver walks into the room, and is busy scanning everyone and everything for input, and analyzing it all. Seeing tiny shifts in posture and other facial actions. Mind work

      • Well, right... a rust stain on a building, that looks like the Virgin Mary from an angle or something is a cool thing (worthy of a bunch of pics), but it's not the Virgin Mary herself in front of me (if She appeared in front of me, I'd have to test my pop, beer, and water, and maybe my food... definitely my blood).
        Let me direct people to "Photographing Fairies" (on whatever streaming service you have).

        The missing scientists idea might sound like a big conspiracy theory, and cool to look into... but even if

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Travco ( 1872216 )
        A better way to phrase it might be - humans are really good at finding non-existent patterns
        • That, I would say is accurate.
          Which is functionally equivalent to not finding a pattern, and then selecting a random course of action in response.

          False positives are still failures.
          I see a lot of people mentioning things our brains pattern match quite well, and thinking that means our conscious brains are excellent pattern matchers.
          If they were, each and every one of us would be millionaires.

          • That, I would say is accurate. Which is functionally equivalent to not finding a pattern, and then selecting a random course of action in response.

            False positives are still failures.P I see a lot of people mentioning things our brains pattern match quite well, and thinking that means our conscious brains are excellent pattern matchers.

            Agree. Most people are not super good at patterning. Some are. Here's https://katheryngreenleaf.subs... [substack.com]. There are other links as well, but many are bullshit, like some sort of cosmic gift and telling people they can become pattern weavers if they sign up for a class.

            If they were, each and every one of us would be millionaires.

            Very true, it can be a lucrative talent. I'll note though, many who are good at patterning, find it difficult to integrate into regular society and life. I've used my trauma based skillset very effectively and made a career and good money off

      • Our pattern recognition is biased towards survival, which means more false positives but fewer fatal false negatives. It's better to mistake movement seen from the corner of your eye as a tiger, than it is to miss a tiger.
        • It's entirely correct that our subconscious pattern matching systems are entirely geared toward survival.
          It's also entirely correct that it still doesn't apply to your conscious reasoning skills, and survival training involves teaching people not to do what they were otherwise going to do.

          As animals, our pattern matching (like other animals) is absolutely top notch.
          As intelligent beings- it's mediocre at best.

    • Well, who knows, really?
      I could see the Government keeping an eye on "Dr. Joe's research" into a major breakthrough cure for cancer, and then taking the research and Dr. Joe has "an accident at high speed on the freeway".
      So, some scientist finds a real cure for aging, where we can live forever or something... would either of those be a great thing if it was made public? For the end person, me or you, awesome! But, they need money to change hands.

      It might not be that extreme, but I can totally see them rec

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Travco ( 1872216 )
      You have just invented my new curse "GEE-SUS on toast"

  • Main takeaway from the article (Score:5, Funny)

    by snowshovelboy ( 242280 ) on Wednesday April 22, 2026 @04:33PM (#66107480)

    TheAtlantic is in on the conspiracy.

  • Why don't rich people carry guns when they go hiking. Like...you have the money. Hell, get a satellite capable phone while you're at it.
    • A very small number of recreational hikers carry pistols. Usually solo-through-hikers, solo hikers in heavy mountain lion territory, or people who are psychos. 99.9% hikers who are not hunting, a pistol does not enhance the fun, and is like carrying a heavy claw hammer for no reason on your one or two day trip.

      I do carry a lightweight Iridium satphone for text, email & SOS. They are common among hikers, often I will meet strangers and 3 or 4 of us will have them. Some of those hikers might even be rich

      • What about hikers in bear country?

        • Bear spray will get the bear off you, a firearm will often aggravate it. Bears understand what a skunk is, and what a fight to the death is. It should be an easy call which you present them with.

    • Because they're smart to know it makes them about 2.5x more likely to be killed if something happens involving someone else with a gun.

      Sat phone, though- not a bad idea.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by SumDog ( 466607 )
        Sounds like you made up some statistics.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          He didn't.

        • Sadly, no. It's simply a fact that if you arm yourself, you're far more likely to be killed by someone else than someone who is unarmed, and you're far more likely to be killed as such than to successfully defend yourself.
          It's a weird delusion that people have where they think it won't apply for them. They'll be the outlier. They'll succeed.

          I suspect it's as simple as, "having a gun on you makes you think you can do something about the bad guy who already has the drop on you. then you try to do something
          • Isn't that basically, "you're less likely to be harmed if you just surrender"?

            That doesn't really sound good to me.

            • Isn't that basically, "you're less likely to be harmed if you just surrender"?

              Yes.

              That doesn't really sound good to me.

              You'd rather die? Alright.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by tohoward ( 78757 )

            ...It's simply a fact that if you arm yourself, you're far more likely to be killed by someone else than someone who is unarmed, and you're far more likely to be killed as such than to successfully defend yourself.

            You'll have to point at something that backs this statement up, since it seems fairly clear to me your statement could follow simply from the premise, i.e. people that arm themselves may be more likely to be attacked by armed individuals in general, and that's why they arm themselves. Additionally, it seems likely that gun owners do have an increased risk of some kind of gun-related incident, simply because owning a gun implies accepting the risks of having one (e.g., being subject to potential accidental

            • A perfect fair ask.
              Here. [nih.gov]
              Here. [nih.gov]
              Here. [aphapublications.org]

              You are more likely to be killed by: An assailant, the police, and an armed coworker.

              I am not disputing any of the pros on the gun debate side- like the way armed civilians are far more effective at stopping an active shooter than police.
              But there are real costs to having those armed civilians. Including drastically larger numbers of deaths when those armed civilians aren't stopping active shooters.

  • When they return from their space voyage, check their rectum for tattoos with messages from the aliens.

    • When they return from their space voyage, check their rectum for tattoos with messages from the aliens.

      You watch Rick and Morty also, I see.

  • They, or I should say, the moron running the agency has decided to look into the matter. There's no chance of that soda jerk reading the Atlantic article since he took exception to their report on his drinking habits.

  • Conspiracy Theory (Score:3)

    by Archangel Michael ( 180766 ) on Wednesday April 22, 2026 @05:09PM (#66107564) Journal

    Conspiracy theories are, until they are not.

    Secret Pedo island owned by rich dude with elitist ties was once a "conspiracy theory". Now we know that Epstein killed himself 100% because "They" said so.

    "I'm just asking questions" idiots notwithstanding. I'm looking at you Candice.

    • conspiracy theories are theories with no evidence whatsoever to them being true except in the mind of the individual/s. Epstein was based on leaked facts of people their. this is based on someone saying this tiny group of people out of literally hundreds of thousands is somehow a conspiracy because....

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by SumDog ( 466607 )
        No, Epstein awareness is due to thousands of people memeing it to death so people would have to look at if. If it hadn't, his "suicide" would have been swept under the rug and forgotten. Viewing it as anything else would have been viewed as a "conspiracy theory" believed only by the types who listen to James Corbett.

        • The awareness due to being heavily memed might not have the probative value you ascribe to it. You may actually have the wrong sign on that one. It doesn't imply something was swept under the rug, or add scare quotes to a suicide.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SumDog ( 466607 )
      > I'm looking at you Candice.

      Have you looked into her husband? George Farmer and her were engaged in less than a month, married in less than a year. His family had mad money and his father owned owned some of the largest copper mines in the UK. His father was also in the Bullingdon Club (Oxford's version of Skull and Bones, with several former Prime Ministers as members).

      When Kirk was allegedly killed, Owens claimed she was a "Mason" of TP USA. She implied she helped found it, but why use such a l

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by exa ( 27197 )

      Sounds like you're just jealous of successful people and that sounds like a dog whistle to me.

      All of that is just coincidences. Palm Beach Pete was a party guy.

    • "Conspiracy theories are, until they are not."

      Conspiracy theories remain conspiracy theories even if the claim turns out to be true. What makes them conspiracy theories is not just that they are wrong, but that they have no basis for being right. If their claim is eventually proven, that proof has nothing to do with the conspiracy theory.

      The fact that a stopped clock is right twice a day doesn't mean it's an effective timepiece.

      • Conspiracy theories remain conspiracy theories even if the claim turns out to be true. What makes them conspiracy theories is not just that they are wrong, but that they have no basis for being right. If their claim is eventually proven, that proof has nothing to do with the conspiracy theory.

        The hallmark of conspiracy theories is falsification resistance.

        For example: "Our skies are full of alien spacecraft, they all have cloaking fields to hide from prying eyes."

        It isn't merely the lack of evidence for alien spacecraft.. what sets conspiracy theories apart is a baked in inability to falsify the theory. Since alien spacecraft are hidden from view of course there is no evidence.

        One could say "Our skies are full of alien spacecraft" while there is no evidence to support the claim it isn't a consp

        • Thank you. That is a superior definition. What I describe is merely a consequence of that.

          It does remain that if a conspiracy theory is non-falsifiable then alignment with facts is not proof.

    • "Q" of Q-anon was describing Eptstein with the misdirect that Epstein and his accomplices lived in Washington, DC and in Hollywood. It is a massive 'own goal' that the anti "satanist" movement, Q-anon, chose Trump to find people like Trump.

      There are conspiracy theories where the truth is exposed but all evidence of the truth has been buried. But most conspiracy stories claim the eye-witness is wrong and the opposite happened.

    • Conspiracy theories are, until they are not.

      No, that's not how conspiracy theories work. Conspiracy theories are conjecture based on assumptions that things "obviously" can't be what they seem. They don't "turn into" conspiracies. WTC towers were actually brought down by the government...that's a conspiracy theory.

      Conspiracies, by contrast, involve specific people and specific events. Iran-Contra...that was a real conspiracy.

      One does not morph into the other. And your example, wasn't actually a conspiracy theory. It's easy *now* to conjure "memories"

    • Don't be a fool. "Secret Pedo Island" wasn't a theory that someone simply made up--it was a thing because actual victims were talking and people were acting like it's just a wild conspiracy theory because quite a bit of money and time was being spent on discrediting and gaslighting the victims.

      This missing scientist business was something that is entirely a work of fiction, purpose-built to make more excuses for why the FBI was still not investigating Secret Pedo Island. While they're claiming they're inve

    • A "conspiracy theory" is an attempt to craft a narrative in the absence of evidence. In the case of Epstein, there was quite a bit of evidence. Not every conspiracy is a "conspiracy theory."

  • While "the government is very stupid" shouldn't be ruled out, given pattern and practice of government in general, and this government in particular, "Missing nuclear scientists! National Security!" seems like it could serve as legal cover for a wide range of possible abuses.

  • That's what they *want* you to think...

  • It's the FBI being dumb (Score:3)

    by evanh ( 627108 ) on Wednesday April 22, 2026 @08:24PM (#66107840)

    for giving the story any attention. Just another example of how much damage Trump has done to US bureaucracy.

    • Hang on, the head of the FBI is drunk and AWOL and so needs some time to catch up.
    • You say that like damaging bureaucracy is a bad thing.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by evanh ( 627108 )

        Correct. You don't have rule-of-law without bureaucracy. And law is something that is failing badly now. Example: When you have police officers openly killing in cold blood, you know the bureaucracy is badly damaged.

  • I don't see either the conspiracy theorists or the debunkers using math. Lots of name calling and innuendo. No probability calculations.

  • methinks thou protests too much

  • Conspiracy theories are boring (Score:4, Funny)

    by jd ( 1658 ) <imipak@yaho[ ]om ['o.c' in gap]> on Thursday April 23, 2026 @03:06AM (#66108160) Homepage Journal

    Nobody comes up with interesting conspiracy theories, they're all boring and much of a muchness.

    To combat this, I am working on some next-gen conspiracy theories which will improve this shoddy market.

    1. Line noise was caused not by faulty connectors, but by a herd of buffalo that wandered onto the networks by mistake when someone left the back of a network cabinet open. What you were hearing was the buffalo grazing on passing connections.

    2. Symphonic metal was invented as a way to smuggle the elder gods, disguised as musicians. to Earth without anyone noticing. This explains the typical themes of songs and why Odin and Loki have played bass for Nightwish.

    3. The missing Doctor Who stories were all penned by actual Time Lords. The High Council found out and tried to erase them from existence.

    • I'm waiting for the UFO fighter camera "proof" freaks and US government and social media hypers to get trounced when the scientific breakdown optical aberration debunking videos that have already settled this matter get referenced.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by whitroth ( 9367 )

      Excellent work. And the buffalo - I remember Nov, 1994. My late wife and I had just relocated to Chicago, and a friend who worked there was giving us a tour of Fermilab. We drove up to the visitor parking... and there, in the middle of the accelerator ring... was a small herd of bison.

      So, it was vigrations from the bison and jiggled the angle of the beam...

      That, of course leads to 307 Ale. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • I saw this meme bullshit pop-up on HN. The discussion signal was nonsensical and indulgent of conspiracy theories. HN has really gone to shite even more-so than Reddit and that isn't just a perpetual accusation but a valid criticism. Seems to be a bunch of "Abundance" and MAGA techbros who worship tech and money fetishization to the exclusion of empathy and socially-redeeming anything. Long live /. for retaining cooler heads and better critical thinking skills relatively, mostly.
  • In other words: "nothing to see, move along" ?
  • Confirmation from Zionist mainstream media! Now we know not only it's true, but who did it. The Petro/PedoDollar-Capitalist-Zionist Evil Empire is falling, and they know it. /shrug
  • I read the book, I know exactly what happened
  • ..."Hey ChatGPT, put together a plan to kidnap or kill the people on this list, in such a manner and such an order that it looks random and totally not a co-ordinated conspiracy, mmm-kay?" I wonder how well that would work...

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