ACCUSATIONS that two French TV presenters sneaked bogus papers into reputable physics journals has sent the sedate world of academic physics into turmoil. Opinions over the fracas remain divided, but one view is that it shows the peer-review system has become outdated.
The saga began when Max Niedermaier, a physicist at Tours University in France, alleged in an email to another physicist that twins Igor and Grichka Bogdanov gained PhDs for “spoof” theses about the Universe’s creation.
The allegations triggered a heated debate on the newsgroup Sci.Physics.Research, which gained momentum amid rumours that the twins had also published four…
