RESEARCH:

Two Australian academics have been forced to withdraw and begin rewriting their just-released research findings which they had claimed disproved a popular and long-held adage.

Mathematicians Stephen Woodcock and Jay Falletta from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) initially claimed that their research had disproved the “infinite monkeys theorem”. (main picture)

The theorem is a well-accepted thought experiment that asserts that a monkey pressing random keys on a typewriter would eventually reproduce the works of William Shakespeare if given an infinite amount of time or if there were an infinite number of monkeys doing the same.

Woodcock and Falletta’s findings were published in the prestigious Franklin Open journal published by the Philadelphia-based Franklin Institute.

Flo Chart, spokesperson for Franklin Open which specialises in research articles in the fields of mechanical engineering and mathematics, confirmed that the claims by the UTS academics were now under review.

“The UTS pair had claimed they had undertaken research sufficient to disprove the infinite monkeys theorem and had found that even if all the world’s monkeys had indefinite lifespans they would almost certainly never pen the works of Shakespeare,” Ms Chart said.

“But shortly after the Franklin Open article on their peer-reviewed work was released the Institute received an email from an Australian subscriber who attached a host of columns on Australian politics and a note claiming they were written by monkeys, albeit ones who had been somewhat trained.

“The columns were definitely not Shakespeare, in fact they hardly made any sense at all.

“But they were then passed on to the peer panel members who then examined them in the context of the original UTS findings and decided that Mr Woodcock and Mr Falletta should withdraw their paper and re-examine its assumptions and findings.”

Ms Chart said the columns that cast doubt on the UTS research each appeared to be written by “some form of barely sentient primate, yet clearly trained to serve and obey their master”.

“We have since been supplied with more information and even photographic evidence (below) suggesting that indeed trained monkeys penned the columns and we have even been given the pet names given to them by their owner – Andrew, Peta, and James,” Ms Chart said.

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