In society

Starik's incident

May 6, 2010 Boris Zhukov

The scandal around Victor Petrik’s miraculous aminforces has already acquired a political color so irrevocably (even having become the reason for the next bickering between the “united” and “fair”) that today few people remember that it began as a purely academic one. Although some scientists and journalists have long tried to draw the attention of society to, to put it mildly, the strange activities of the Russian Leonardo, this did not cause much interest in understanding people: how many scientific freaks are grazed today in Russia? The thunder struck last fall, when video grolks appeared on the website of the Golden Formula company, in which academicians and corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences spoke praise about the inventor of the eternal engine. One of the videos even captured a visit to the experimental base of Petrik in Vsevolozhsk by a special academic commission led by Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergey Aldoshin.

Here many have already worried. It is one thing - when terry charlatan hangs noodles on the ears with gullible officials and politicians (for nothing that there are many owners of engineering diplomas among the latter) and quite another - when the elite of domestic fundamental science rides by a bow to it. The latter means the final erasure of the already poorly noticeable border in today's Russia between science and its shamanistic imitation. And this is equivalent to the cessation of the existence of science as such: a mixture of pure water with slop in any proportion can only be slop.

In December last year, public anxiety resulted in an open letter to the Russian Academy of Sciences from the members of the Club of Scientific Journalists - an informal organization uniting regularly writing on scientific topics of journalists, as well as scientists involved in the popularization of science. At the general meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in support of the letter, the RAS Commission was performed by countering pseudoscience (in the field of view of which Mr. Petrik fell for a long time) and the separation of physical sciences. As a result, the Academy decided to create a special commission for examining the works of Petrik V.I. A month and a half after the publication of the letter (during which the scandal managed to go beyond the scope of the academic community, and the academicians who went to Petrik-disavow their video clocks) such a commission led by the Academician-Secretary of the Chemistry and Sciences of Materials Vladimir Tartakovsky was actually created. (She should not be confused with the permanent “False Commission”, although a number of active scientists turned out to be members of both commissions.) And the other day its conclusion was published on the RAS website.

Reading this document leaves the impression of an almost deliberate inconsistency of form and content. In essence, it says the following. Firstly, Petrik's activity is not related to science. Secondly, at least two of its “inventions” (in total, Petrik received more than 100 patents in different countries, but today only 38 are supported from them) contradict the laws of nature. Thirdly, the rest of the inventions are based on the long-known effects and essentially differ little from the decisions proposed earlier by other authors, and do not have pronounced technical or commercial advantages over them. Finally, the proposal was especially noted to use nanomaterials in filters to purify drinking water (that is, exactly what the United Russia party proposes to spend trillions of budget rubles): in the available materials the issue of the safety of such technologies for consumer health, while according to literary data, this safety is at least not obvious.

However, all these murderous conclusions are set forth by a strikingly delicate syllable. Even the most uncompromising, completely unambiguous thesis “The activities of Mr. V. I. Petrik are not in the field of science ...” is immediately softened by the diplomatic clarification “... but in the field of business and invention”. The commentators who noted this circumstance are inclined to explain it to the academic commission, either from the leadership of the Academy itself (which is still embarrassed to publicly admit that its members and even the leaders publicly approved the knowing charlatanism), or from the higher patrons of the Russian Leonardo. Perhaps, attempts to pressure from one side or the other in fact took place, but it is thought, however, that the reason for the stylistic restraint of the final document is much easier.

On the eve of the publication of the final conclusion on the Russian -speaking Internet, a coordinated wave of performances in defense of Petrik was held. In this activity, even the most popular Ibigdan blogger for today was noted, and an anonymous note in support of Petrik somehow came even to the site izvestia.ru. A few hours later, it was removed from there, but the head of the Izvestia newspaper, Peter Obraztsov (signing, among others, “letter of scientific journalists” in December) had to explain for a long time for his colleagues that neither his department, nor the newspaper’s editors control the contents of the site.

And on the same day, a persecuted genius appeared in the blogosphere (unless, of course, the blogger Vpetrik and V.I. Petrik - in fact one person). From the pages of the newly established blog, he, in turn, filed an open letter to the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yuri Osipov. Having spent the torment that he underwent from the academicians Eduard Kruglyakov and Evgeny Alexandrov, and at the same time put forward the absurd accusations against both, he in the end announced his intention to file a lawsuit “On the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation, as well as a claim for lost benefit”. And in this regard, he asked: do its offenders act on behalf of the Russian Academy of Sciences or act exclusively as private individuals?

Most likely, this, of course, is bluff. Viktor Ivanovich will probably not submit to any court (in any case, so far all his threats of this kind remained empty), and the purpose of the whole venture with an open letter is to scare the leadership of the Russian Academy of Sciences and force them to dissociate themselves from their own commissioning pseudoscience. But - who knows? Russian courts sometimes not only accept consideration, but also satisfy completely absurd claims. So, for example, last summer the Leninsky District Court of the city of Tyumen ordered the scientist to refute the results of the study conducted by him - and this unthinkable decision was approved by regional and supreme courts. So the concern of the members of the Tartakovsky commission that at least the vocabulary of the conclusion they draw up does not give a reason for court claims, not only understandable, but also quite reasonable.

If Petrik really tries to transfer the dispute with academics to the court, this will create a very ambiguous situation. Usually, in the affairs of this kind of courts, they are based on the results of the examinations assigned by them. But in this case, the examination has already been carried out, the most authoritative, which is possible at the national level - this is an examination of the Tartakovsky commission. What to do to the court if the plaintiff decides to challenge her?

You can, of course, shook your shoulders: why should it be a problem for someone except Petrik himself? If he is not satisfied with the level of the National Academy - let him demand an international examination (so that all world science also knew what a civilized state that creates an innovative economy was going to slap half a trillion dollars). Alas, everything is not entirely true.

As you know, although in fact, in civil proceedings, the burden of evidence usually lies with the plaintiff, in cases of protecting honor and dignity, the plaintiff should prove only the fact of the defendant’s spread of the contested statements. He is not obliged to prove their injustice - the defendant will have to prove this that they are fair . And if Petrik manages to achieve at least the consideration of the case in this format (so far the claims for the cancellation of the results of the examination have nothing to do with the “protection of honor and dignity” and were most often based on violations of the examination procedure) - you can say goodbye to the examination institution. Once before the prospect of a multi -month life under a lawsuit, specialists will either avoid participating in examinations, or stamped positive conclusions.

It remains to hope that even if Petrik himself has enough fee to sue, the senior comrades will correct him. It’s such a turn of the case-meaning that this story will remain at the center of public attention for a few more months-today is completely useless.

Photos from the site www.scorcher ru