The funeral of French twin brothers, the faces of a famed 1980s science TV programme who later won notoriety for their cosmetic surgery, was held in Paris Monday after the pair died within a week . "Nobody seems to be fooled", he added. He came to trial and was convicted in March 2012. [46] This scandal, combined with the presence of the Bogdanoffs, contributed to an atmosphere of controversy surrounding Megatrend. [3], Although the Bogdanoff twins claimed to be descended paternally from a noble Muslim Tatar family traceable to the beginning of the 17th century (originally from Penza, one of whose mirzas converted to Orthodox Christianity, and was rewarded with the title of prince by a decree from Tsar Feodor III; the mirza did not exercise this right, and the title of "Prince Bogdanoff" was lost by the end of the 19th century),[5][6][citation needed] there is scant evidence for that. But if one accepts that the papers about these difficult questions don't have to be just a well-defined science but maybe also a bit of inspiring art, the brothers have done a pretty good job, I think. According to physicist Arun Bala, all of these papers "involved purported applications of quantum theory to understand processes at the dawn of the universe", but ultimately turned out to be a "hoax perpetrated on the physics community. . [66], The affair prompted many comments about the possible shortcomings of the referral system for published articles, and also on the criteria for acceptance of a PhD thesis. The New York Times reporter George Johnson described reading through the debate as "like watching someone trying to nail Jell-O to a wall", for the Bogdanovs had "developed their own private language, one that impinges on the vocabulary of science only at the edges."[4]. [11] Nobel laureate Georges Charpak later stated on a French talk show that the Bogdanoffs' presence in the scientific community was "nonexistent". However, Baez pointed out, this statement does not in fact concern the Big Bang, and is entirely equivalent to the following: No matter which way a pendulum swings, there is some point on the plane in which it swings. Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, French twin brothers and TV presenters, are the embodiment of plastic surgeries gone TVwrong. Twin brothers who were once boyishly handsome TV stars in France have undergone so much plastic surgery that they're nearly unrecognizable. [52] He married his second wife, Amlie de Bourbon-Parme, civilly in Paris on 1 October 2009 and religiously in Chambord two days later. The paper was discussed extensively at the annual Editorial Board meeting and there was general agreement that it should not have been published. FRENCH star Grichka Bogdanoff, 72, sadly passed away on Tuesday after a battle with Covid-19. Their status as "crypto memes" was covered by several outlets upon their deaths, including CNN, Business Insider, and The Daily Telegraph. The brothers - who were raised by their maternal grandmother in her . Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff are fraternal twin brothers who are famous French TV producers and scientific essayists. The scientific language was just an appearance behind which hid incompetence and ignorance of even basic physics.[24]. Knowledge pertaining the Bogdanoffs is known as the Bogpill, a term that is a nod to the Matrix's red/blue pill scene. [11], In 2001 and 2002, the brothers published five papers (including "Topological field theory of the initial singularity of spacetime") in peer-reviewed physics journals. One of the scientists who approved Igor Bogdanoff's thesis, Roman Jackiw of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spoke to The New York Times reporter Dennis Overbye. Igor Bogdanoff has passed away at 72, just six days after the death of twin brother Grichka. Since then several steps have been taken to further improve the peer review process in order to improve the quality assessment on articles submitted to the journal and reduce the likelihood that this could happen again. I couldn't believe it. It would be too good if all these ideas and (correct) formulae were necessary for a justification of a working solution to the initial singularity problem. [39][57], In 2005, the Bogdanovs became professors at Megatrend University in Belgrade where they were appointed Chairs of Cosmology and said to direct the Megatrend Laboratory of Cosmology. [49] According to former education minister Luc Ferry, a friend of the brothers, they had both received botox injections for cosmetic treatment. Their mother Maya Kolowrat Bogdanoff was a result of an affair between Austrian grandmother Bertha Kolowrat-Krakowsk and African American Tenor Roland Hayes in 1925. [51], Alain Riazuelo, an astrophysicist at the Institut d'astrophysique de Paris, participated in many of the online discussions of the Bogdanovs' work. In Calaque's estimation, the results presented in the preprint did not have sufficient novelty and interest to merit an independent journal article, and moreover the principal theorem was, in its current formulation, false: Grichka Bogdanov's construction yields a bialgebra which is not necessarily a Hopf algebra,[31] the latter being a type of mathematical object which must satisfy additional conditions. "[20][21], Copies of the email reached American mathematical physicist John C. Baez, and on 23 October he created a discussion thread about the Bogdanoffs' work on the Usenet newsgroup sci.physics.research, titled "Physics bitten by reverse Alan Sokal hoax? On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. They explain that they have found proof that their father was the descendant of a prince, the right arm of Tsar Peter the Great", that "according to them, Youra was a young artist [] he would have followed 'a solid training as a painter as a free auditor at the Beaux-Arts'", and that "it was there, according to the twins, who love romance, that a "famous writer" met in Paris would have introduced Youra to their grandmother". [2] He originally applied for a degree in physics, but was instead given one in mathematics, and was first required to significantly rewrite his thesis, de-emphasizing the physics content. [11] Both brothers received the lowest passing grade of "honorable". On 4chan, the brothers are associated with a list of grandiose conspiracy theories, which are often listed whenever someone asks for a "quick rundown" on the twins. [24][25] These news stories included commentary by physicists. Alas, I was completely mistaken. In a statement released by his agent, the family . In 2010, the Sydney Morning Herald described the twins' cheekbones as "so high and bulbous as . The first was on December 29 and the second on January 3. . They have the right to have their work recognized with a diploma, which is nothing much these days. The report stated that "the viewpoint presented in this paper can be interesting as a possible approach of the Planck scale physics." He continued, "But the increasingly low standard of coherence in the whole field is what allowed them to think they were doing something sensible and to get it published. [30] Moreover, a comment by physicist Peter Woit written as, "It's certainly possible that you have some new worthwhile results on quantum groups", was translated as "Il est tout fait certain que vous avez obtenu des rsultats nouveaux et utiles dans les groupes quantiques" ("It is completely certain that you have obtained new and useful results on quantum groups") and published by the Bogdanovs in the addendum of their book. Grichka Bogdanoff and Igor Bogdanoff (L-R) photographed in Paris, France in November 2019. "[24] The New York Times reported that the physicists David Gross, Carlo Rovelli, and Lee Smolin considered the Bogdanoff papers nonsensical. I gor and Grichka Bogdanoff, the most eccentric twins made famous on French television, died six days apart of Covid, two years into the coronavirus pandemic.Grichka died first, on 28 December . 1 year ago. Igor was born 40 minutes before Grichka. C.A. [20] Niedermaier suggested that the Bogdanoffs' Ph.D. theses and papers were "spoof[s]", created by throwing together instances of theoretical-physics jargon, including terminology from string theory: "The abstracts are delightfully meaningless combinations of buzzwords which apparently have been taken seriously. With the death of Grichka Bogdanoff, a whole part of the 1980s died out. Grichka died on 28 December,[55] and Igor died six days later, on 3 January 2022. Humans who deeply . A Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) internal report later concluded that their theses had no scientific value. "[4] String theorist Aaron Bergman riposted in a review of Not Even Wrong that Woit's conclusion, is undermined by a number of important elisions in the telling of the story, the most important of which is that the writings of the Bogdanovs, to the extent that one can make sense of them, have almost nothing to do with string theory. That's all I ask.[2]. One episode after the heyday of the affair involved the participation of an unidentified "Professor Yang". [52] But in passing judgement the court stated that the scientist had "lacked prudence", given "the fame of the plaintiff". I am writing this just to point out what I think are the central 'ideas' the authors had when writing their articles and how this led them to their conclusions.[30]. [44][46], At the beginning of 2004, Igor Bogdanov began to post on French Usenet physics groups and Internet forums, continuing the pattern of behavior seen on sci.physics.research. [10], The brothers began careers in television, hosting several popular programs on science and science fiction. The Bogdanoffs quickly became a popular discussion topic, with most respondents agreeing that the papers were flawed. "[12] Jacques Distler voiced a similar opinion, proclaiming "The [Bogdanovs'] papers consist of buzzwords from various fields of mathematical physics, string theory and quantum gravity, strung together into syntactically correct, but semantically meaningless prose. FRENCH star Grichka Bogdanoff, 72, sadly passed away on Tuesday after a battle with Covid-19.But before his tragic death, he and his brother Igor were . Jackiw defended the thesis: All these were ideas that could possibly make sense. Picture: Valery HACHE / AFP Igor (R) and Grichka Bogdanoff (L) were stars in their native France. Comment. [44][45] Mia Jovanovi, the rector and owner of Megatrend University, wrote a preface for the Serbian edition of Avant le Big Bang. The Bogdanoff twins, however, always denied having any plastic surgery. it does not surprise me much that Roman Jackiw said that the paper satisfied everything he expects from an acceptable paperthe knowledge of the jargon and some degree of original ideas. One point noted by Schreiber, Oeckl and the CNRS report is the claim, "A theory is topological if (the, (entry in the French academic library directory), Last edited on 26 November 2022, at 11:18, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Polmique autour des travaux des frres Bogdanov, List of topics characterized as pseudoscience, "L't scientifique des frres Bogdanoff", "Are They a) Geniuses or b) Jokers? [32][33], The CNRS report summarized the Bogdanoffs' theses thus: "Ces thses nont pas de valeur scientifique. [2][3][4] The first of these, Temps X (Time X), ran from 1979 to 1989. On Tuesday, December 28, Grichka Bogdanoff, one of the two renowned Bogdanoff twins, passed away at the age of 72. According to Sternheimer, the twins viewed themselves as "the Einstein brothers" and had a propensity to voice vague, "impressionistic" statements; he considered guiding their efforts "like teaching My Fair Lady to speak with an Oxford accent. [] Rarement aura-t-on vu un travail creux habill avec une telle sophistication" ("These theses have no scientific value. [9] That journal ceased publication in 2005. Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, now 60, had chin implants . In conclusion, I would not recommend that this paper be published in this, or any, journal. Similarly, Richard Monastersky, writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, observed, "There is one wayfor physicists to measure the importance of the Bogdanovs' work. They were involved in a number of controversies, most notably the Bogdanov affair, which brought to light the fact that the brothers had written nonsensical advanced physics papers that were nonetheless published in reputable scientific journals. "[2], In 2001 and 2002 the brothers published five papers in peer-reviewed physics journals, including Annals of Physics and Classical and Quantum Gravity. [3][5], In 1991 the Bogdanovs published a book, Dieu et la Science (God and Science), drawn from interviews with Catholic philosopher Jean Guitton, which became a French bestseller. Having found a copy of one of the relevant papers available online, I posted that "the referee clearly didn't even glance at it." [11] In contrast, Ignatios Antoniadis (of the cole Polytechnique), who approved Grichka Bogdanoff's thesis, later reversed his judgment of it. 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