Table
of Contents
The Basic Story: initial email exchanges that started the snowball
down the mountain. - The Bogdanov Affaire started with a rumor
that two brothers published at least 4 bogus papers in physics journals
as a hoax. On or around October 22nd, a physicist named Max Niedermaier
- previously affiliated with the Max Planck Institute For Gravitational
Physics, Potsdam, Germany - sent an email around to a number of people
- including another physicist: Ted Newman. - Ezra "Ted"
Newman apparently fowarded the email to many individuals including
- it seems - John Baez.
-
Statement from Robert Coquereaux - I agree that it is a pity if
people in academics can no longer even make the difference between
a genuine article and a hoax, and I agree with you that this is a
symptom of the decadence of our system. If they were not TV personalities,
nobody would even care (probably this is the real problem!)
-
-
4)
Statement by Arkadiusz Jadczyk - The only way I can see out of
the trap is to always "work with your own brain." Never
believe a word of what has been published - unless you are able to
check it yourself. Never follow a fashion. Never expect to be praised
or even understood - for what you have produced as a scientist. Never
expect that your own papers will be accepted for publication in peer
reviewed jornals. In fact, the more original your paper is, the less
likely it is that it will be accepted!
-
-
- Daniel Sternheimer: Mise au point - At a time when so many scientific
papers consist in just applying some machinery in a context which is,
or seems, slightly different of previous applications, it is refreshing
that a few intelligent persons having a different perspective try and
bring in new ideas. It is then to others, who are more experts, to be
inspired by these ideas. That is what happened when I+G were discussing
with established scientists who had no idea that I+G should be deemed
pariahs, apparently because someone decided so.
-
Robert Coquereaux answers an inquiry from a journalist of a leading
newspaper - My opinion is that for the last twenty years or so,
there has been a deterioration in the style of expository or research
papers. There are several reasons for that (see below). This does
not mean that many recent papers are wrong, it means that either such
papers are "not even wrong", or that they require a lot of time and
efforts from behalf of the potential readers to become meaningful.
...the United States carries a heavy responsability in the deterioration
of the style quality of scientific papers.
-
|
