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"World's most mysterious book may be a hoax," by John Whitfield. Nature Science Update, 17 December 2003.
The Voynich manuscript is a 16th century book in code which has eluded decryption since its creation. Gordon Rugg of Keele University (UK) now claims that the book is a hoax and that its contents are mere gibberish. An argument against the hoax theory is that aspects of the book, such as word lengths, have a complexity similar to that of real languages. Rugg believes, however, that an old device, the Cardan grille, could account for the complexity while still rendering meaningless text. Other experts say that Rugg's argument is plausible but they are not ready to believe that the book is a hoax. Rugg's research is published in Cryptologia, in the first (quarterly) issue of 2004.
--- Mike Breen
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