Controversy surrounds report of chicks hatched from boiled eggs
A poster of Guo Ping (left) is shown outside the office of Chunlin Education in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.
Authorities in Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan Province, have started an investigation after a paper was published in a science journal by the director of a training school who claimed chickens had been hatched from boiled eggs.
Guo Ping, director of Chunlin Education, claimed that after receiving training at the school, students with "superpowers" could use “idea and energy transmission” to turn more than 40 boiled eggs back to raw eggs from which chicks were successfully hatched. The paper was published in a journal called Xiezhen Dili (写真地理), or Pictorial Geography, in March.
China Central Television called the paper a blatant “insult to people’s intelligence” and said it is concerning that students were trained there. It also rebuked the journal that published whatever pseudoscience after getting paid, which was a “shame and absurdity of academia.”
According to the website and WeChat account of Chunlin Education, it offers courses with mysterious names such as "super sensing omnipotent whole brain development" and "quick reading using atomic energy waves" targeting teenage students.
Reporters for news portal The Paper visited the school's office in Zhengzhou's Jinshui District and found it empty. An official with a local human resources bureau told the news portal it is investigating the school, and will punish it if it is found to conduct teaching activities outside its business scope.
Photos of Guo Ping with students taking part in a so-called International Sixth Sense Competition were shown in the office, Thepaper.cn reported.
The second author of the paper, Guo Tai'an, owner of a local family farm, told Chengdu-based Red Star News that Guo took eight eggs to his farm and two chicks were hatched. He had no idea whether the eggs were boiled or not. He also did not know he was listed as the second author and said he only participated in part of the experiment.
Press and Publication Bureau of Jilin Province where Pictorial Geography is based said yesterday it has dispatch a work group to investigate the journal.
The experiment's conclusions have drawn torrents of ridicule online with netizens comparing it to science fiction.
