An interesting note on the debate of "what is science?"
JDG
Theoretical physics
Publish and perish
Nov 14th 2002
>From The Economist print edition
Just how rigorous is the process of scientific publication?
JOHNNY CASH once sang that he found it �very, very easy to be true�.
Post-modern literary theorists find concepts of truth rather more slippery,
particularly in the case of Alan Sokal. Dr Sokal is a physicist who, in
1996, submitted a deliberately nonsensical article to Social Text, a
cultural studies journal. The article was published in a special issue on
the �Science Wars��an attempt to examine, from various perspectives, the
role of science in culture. Dr Sokal, who was seeking to satirise
post-modernism's chronic lack of intellectual rigour, owned up to his hoax,
provoking a lively debate.
Recently, however, the boot has been on the other foot. For the past few
days, physicists have been fretting that they might have been attacked by a
pair of hoaxers rather like Dr Sokal. It turns out that Igor and Grichka
Bogdanov, the supposed perpetrators, seem sincere in their theorising.
Nonetheless, they have cast doubt on the intellectual rigour of theoretical
physicists.
The Bogdanovs, who are twin brothers, have come under attack for a series
of papers about a purported mathematical theory of the �singularity� at the
Big Bang itself�a crucial few billionths of a second earlier than
mainstream theorists generally worry about. The problem is that their
mathematics do not seem to make any sense, even to other physicists.
The controversy centres on five papers published between October 2001 and
April 2002. Three were written jointly by the twins, and two by Igor
Bogdanov alone. These papers claimed�well, it is not clear exactly what
they did claim. And therein lies the problem, for all were published in
well-respected peer-reviewed journals. That means publication was
conditional on the say-so of independent and anonymous expert referees.
Nonsense is not supposed to get through this process�certainly not five times.
The idea that the Bogdanovs might be having the world of physics on was
floated publicly by John Baez, a researcher at the University of
California, Riverside. Last month he posted a message to an Internet
newsgroup asking about rumours that the Bogdanovs' work was a hoax. The
issue swiftly became a hot topic of discussion�with most people agreeing
that there was something fishy about the papers. That the Bogdanovs might
be pulling somebody's leg was not entirely implausible. Although only
recently awarded their doctorates (for work related to the published
papers), they are in their 50s and have had earlier careers as co-hosts of
a popular science show on French television and as authors of a bestselling
popular science book. Igor Bogdanov, however, reacted quickly to the claim,
calling it �pure non sense�.
There is certainly no reason to doubt the brothers' denials. And the
Bogdanovs continue to be supported by Daniel Sternheimer, who supervised
both of their doctoral theses. But that still leaves questions about the
rigour of the publication process. Neither of the two most prominent
journals that published papers by the Bogdanovs, Classical and Quantum
Gravity (CQG) and Annals of Physics, have retracted them. However, CQG has
issued a statement saying that the paper it published �does not meet the
standards expected of articles in this journal�. Hermann Nicolai, CQG's
editor, has also said that, as far as he can see, the article is devoid of
substance. Frank Wilczek, editor of Annals, emphasised that he was not in
charge when the Bogdanovs' paper was accepted, and he suspects that it
would not have been allowed through under today's regime. He went on to say
of the paper that he �had the distinct impression that one step doesn't
follow from another�.
Does it matter? Perhaps not. This is not a scandal like that of Hendrik
Sch�n, who was recently shown to have fabricated experimental results at
Bell Labs in America. He worked in important and commercially significant
areas of semiconductor and superconductor physics. Nonetheless, l'affaire
Bogdanov might give post-modernists justifiable cause to snicker. And it
leads you to wonder what else is getting through the supposedly foolproof
net of peer review.
_______________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
People everywhere want to say what they think; choose who will govern
them; worship as they please; educate their children -- male and female;
own property; and enjoy the benefits of their labor. These values of
freedom are right and true for every person, in every society -- and the
duty of protecting these values against their enemies is the common
calling of freedom-loving people across the globe and across the ages.
-US National Security Policy, 2002
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