This story – about a seemingly fake set of scientific papers that managed to get published in reputable scientific journals – just gets more and more weird. Apparently the twins appear quite sincere in their belief that their paper has legitimate merit (rather than just being the Anti-Sokals that I thought they were initially). And they even have bodacious fans!
The sociological milieu of the affair is rich in color and personalities. The Bogdanovs have been described as “charismatic” and and “persuasive.” One of the juicier details is that the Bogdanov twins actually have FANS – scores of beautiful, nubile young women – who attend their seminars thereby delighting the other physicists – distracting them from theoretical to applied pysics. The Bogdanovs have political cachet – even the support of the French Minister of education. In addition to this, because of their prominence, the Bogdanov brothers have brought various publishing houses into the fray, making for a general circus-like atmosphere in the normally subdued and monkly Ivory towers of science.
Mind you, the site that’s from also talks about a COINTELPRO conspiracy to hold back science. We appear to be entering the really dark, conspiracy-laden corners of sci.physics here. Or at least slightly more French than I’m accustomed to.