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'''Geordie''' refers to a person originating from [[Tyneside]] ([[England]]) and the adjacent former coal mining areas of northern [[County Durham]] or the [[dialect]] spoken by such people. There are a number of rival theories to explain how the term came about, though all accept that it derives from a familiar diminutive form of the name "George".
The '''Bogdanov Affair''' is a controversy in theoretical physics about the merit of a series of papers published in some reputable scholarly journals and the academic credentials awarded based on the content of those publications. The affair received widespread media attention outside of academic physics, where commentators questioned the strength of the [[peer-review]] system that the scientific community and academia use to determine the merit of work.
In recent times Geordie has also been used to refer to a supporter of [[Newcastle United F.C.|Newcastle United]] [[football (soccer)|football]] club no matter their origin, including people from outside the traditional area.
During [[1999]]–[[2002]], popular French TV presenters '''Igor''' and '''Grichka Bogdanov''' obtained Ph.D. degrees on the basis of two theses (one in mathematics, one in theoretical physics) from the University of [[Burgundy]]. From this work, they published six papers in refereed physics and mathematics journals, including ''Annals of Physics'' and ''Classical and Quantum Gravity''. After reading the abstracts of both theses, a French resident physicist named [http://www.phys.univ-tours.fr/fiche.php?person=niedermaier Max Niedermaier] considered them to be [[pseudoscience]], consisting entirely of dense technical [[jargon]] in a manner similar to the [[Sokal Affair]]. On [[22 October]] [[2002]], Niedermaier subsequently sent an email to this effect to various physicists. An eventual recipient of this email, the American mathematical physicist [[John Baez]], created a discussion on the [[Usenet]] newsgroup ''sci.physics.research'' entitled, "[http://groups.google.com/group/sci.physics.research/browse_frm/thread/28e04d38aabd16f2/09f8fde48d7c3566#09f8fde48d7c3566 Physics bitten by reverse Alan Sokal hoax?] "
== Derivation of the term ==
This question immediately attracted worldwide attention, both in the physics community and in the international popular press. Following Niedermaier, most of the participants to the Usenet thread of discussion created by Baez made assumptions that the work was a deliberate hoax in the style of [[Alan Sokal|Sokal]], to which the Bogdanov brothers have continued to make vehement denials. Consequently, Niedermaier issued a private and public apology to the Bogdanovs on 24 October 2002 for assuming, from the outset, that their work was a deliberate hoax (he has not endorsed the validity or merit of the work in question).
One explanation is that it was established during the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite Rebellion]] of 1745. The Jacobites declared that the natives of [[Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]] were staunch supporters of the Hanoverian Kings, in particular of [[George II of Great Britain|George II]] during the [[1745]] rebellion. This contrasted with rural [[Northumbria]], which largely supported the Jacobite cause. If true, the term may have derived from a popular anti-Hanoverian song, which calls the first Hanoverian king "Geordie Whelps", meaning "George the [[House of Guelph|Guelph]]".
In response to contacts from a "number of" the journal's readers, the Editorial Board of the journal ''Classical and Quantum Gravity'' (CQG) issued a [http://groups.google.com/group/sci.physics.research/browse_frm/thread/56c27e6d7d709f28/c1437787f7e9909c?hl=en#c1437787f7e9909c statement] saying:
An alternative explanation for the name is that local miners used "Geordie" safety lamps designed by [[George Stephenson]], rather than the "Davy Lamps" designed by [[Humphry Davy]] which were used in other mining communities.
The term Geordie is often incorrectly used to cover all the peoples of the [[North East England|North East of England]], though this usage is generally confined to people from other parts of the [[United Kingdom]], and is considered an insult by North-Easterners who do not come from Tyneside, due to intense local rivalries. To North-Easterners the term exclusively refers to persons from Tyneside; since about [[1991]] people from [[Sunderland|Wearside]] have been termed [[Mackem|Mackems]]; people from [[Hartlepool]] are known as [[monkey hanger]]s, whilst natives of the [[Teesside]] conurbation are generally referred to as [[Smoggies]]. People from the countryside in between these urban areas are generally referred to as 'farm yackers' or 'pit yackers' (particularly in Northumberland around the Ashington area).
:''Regrettably, despite the best efforts, the refereeing process cannot be 100% effective. Thus the paper "Topological theory of the initial singularity of spacetime" by G Bogdanov and I Bogdanov, Classical and Quantum Gravity 18 4341-4372 (2001) made it through the review process even though, in retrospect, it does not meet the standards expected of articles in this journal.''
:''The journal's Editorial Board became aware of this situation already in April 2002. The paper was discussed extensively at the annual Editorial Board meeting in September 2002, and there was general agreement that it should not have been published. 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. However, there are at this time no plans to withdraw the article. Rather, the journal publishes refereed Comments and Replies by readers and authors as a means to comment on and correct mistakes in published material.''
== The Geordie dialect ==
The Bogdanov's point to support of referees of a paper, "KMS State of Spacetime at the Planck Scale", published in ''Chinese Journal of Physics'':
'''Geordie''' derives much less influence from French and Latin than does Standard English, being substantially [[Angle tribe|Angle]] and [[Viking]] in origin. The accent and pronunciation, as in [[Scots language|Lowland Scots]], reflect old Anglo-Saxon pronunciations, accents and usages.
:''Motivated by string theory results, in this paper the author discussed the space-time below Planck scale as a thermodynamic system subject to KMS condition. Since the physics at the Planck scale has been largely unexplored, the viewpoint presented in this paper can be interesting as a possible approach of the Planck scale physics. Thus it will be reasonable to consider the publication of this paper in Chinese Journal of Physics. Before publication, however, the author should correct the followings. If these corrections are made, it can be published in the journal wihout further reviewing.''
Personal pronouns differ markedly from Standard English: Geordies use "youse" for plural "you", "me" for "my", "us" for "me", "wor" for "our". The word "wor" is sometimes placed before the given name of the person being the subject of conversation to denote that they are a family member, for example "wor Allan" or "wor da" (father). It is also quite common for Geordies to use the word "man" for both men and women, as in "howay man" (c'mon you).
The same paper was published in ''The Journal of Physics A''. A dissenting reviewer of the paper, Eli Hawkins, who later went public, evaluated the paper [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/bogdanoff/referee.html as follows]:
Vowel sounds are also quite unusual. "er" on the end of words becomes "a" ("father" is pronounced "fatha", both "a" sounds as in "hat"). Many "a" sounds become more like "e": "hev" for "have" and "thet" for "that". Double vowels are often pronounced separately as dipthongs: "boat" becomes "boh-ut". Some words acquire extra vowels ("growel" for "growl", "cannet" for "can't"). This property of the dialect has lead Geordie to be known for ''putting as many vowels as possible into a word''. The "or" sound in words like "talk" becomes "aa", while "er" sounds in words like "work" becomes "or". The "ow" in words like "down" or, most famously, "town" becomes "oo", hence "the Toon" meaning [[Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]]. In Wearside, the "oo" in words like "cook", "book" or "look" becomes "uu", although this accent has come to be known as [[Mackem]], not Geordie.
:'' ... The main result of this paper is that this thermodynamic equilibrium should be a KMS state. This almost goes without saying; for a quantum system, the KMS condition is just the concrete definition of thermodynamic equilibrium. The hard part is identifying the quantum system to which the condition should be applied, which is not done in this paper.''
Geordie also has a large amount of vocabulary not seen in other English dialects. Words still in common use today include "canny" for "pleasant" (it should be noted that the Scottish use of canny is often somewhat less flattering), "hyem" for "home", "divn't" for "don't", "bairn" and "grandbairn" for "child" and "grandchild", "hacky" for "dirty", and "gan" for "go". "Howay" is broadly comparable to the invocation "Come on!". Examples of common use include "Howay man!", meaning something like "come on" or "hurry up", "Howay the lads!" as an encouragement for a football team, or "Ho''way''!?" expressing incredulity or disbelief. The word "hyem" for "home" is inherited from the [[Old Norse language]]. The word "tab" for "cigarette" is thought to derive from Ogden's Tabs, a once-popular brand of cigarettes.
: ''It is difficult to describe what is wrong in Section 4, since almost nothing is right. The author seems to believe that just because and analytic continuation of a function exists, the argument "must" be considered a complex number. He also makes the rather obvious claims in eq's 6 and 7 that complex numbers should be the sums of real and imaginary parts. The remainder of the paper is a jumble of misquoted results from math and physics. It would take up too much space to enumerate all the mistakes: indeed it is difficult to say where one error ends and the next begins.''
Geordie commonly uses the word 'Aye' meaning 'Yes', which is also found in most Scottish dialects. As a contrast, a geordie might say the word 'Na' for 'No' however this occurs less frequently.
: ''In conclusion, I would not recommend that this paper be published in this, or any, journal.''
Much of the vocabulary is a preserved form of [[Old English language|Old English]], the north having not been so affected by the [[Norman conquest]]. Pronouncing Old English with a geordie-like accent, rather than the more commonly recommended German, results in a form more comprehendible to those with knowledge of the meaning of Geordie vocabulary. When a Geordie uses the word "larn" for teach, it is not a misuse of the English word "learn"; the word is derived from the [[Anglo Saxon]] word "laeran", meaning to teach.
Geordie is also sometimes used to describe the distinctive dialect of the people of [[Northumbria]]. However strictly speaking, South East Northumberland (the [[mining]] area bordering Tyneside) has its own similar, but distinctive dialect known as [[Pitmatic]].
The Bogdanovs' work purports to encompass [[quantum group]]s, [[KMS theory]], and [[topological field theory]], culminating in a proposition of a theory for describing what occurred before the [[Big Bang]]. Whilst the general public cannot be expected to have the expertise to evaluate the specialised technical claims of either side in this dispute, currently virtually all physicists who have published on web forums and the ''sci.physics.research'' newsgroup are of the opinion that the Bogdanov paper is a hoax, "gibberish", or at best, a piece of sloppy work plagued by errors, while only very few other physicists currently defend the Bogdanov theory.
In recent times, the Geordie accent has featured prominently in the national media, arguably more so than ever before. TV Presenters such as [[Ant and Dec]], and [[Marcus Bentley]], are happy to use their natural accents on air. The commentator on the UK edition of [[Big Brother (UK TV series)|Big Brother]] is often perceived by southerners to have a Geordie accent (North-East accents do sound very alike to the untuned ear), however, he grew up in [[Stockton on Tees]]). Brendan Foster and Sid Waddell have both worked as television sports commentators. However, in general, the Geordie accent still tends to be employed for comedy effect as opposed to serious usage.
On the other hand, and before this widespread "hoax" discussion, the reports on their thesis and most of the journal referees' reports spoke favorably of their work. This is at the root of questions regarding the strength of the [[peer-review]] system that the scientific community and academia use to determine the merit of submitted manuscripts for publication. Physicist Steve Carlip remarks about this:
The accent was also popularised by the [[comic]] [[magazine]] [[Viz (comic)|Viz]], where the accent itself is often conveyed phonetically by unusual spellings within the comic strips. Viz magazine itself was founded on Tyneside by a couple of Geordie lads, [[Chris Donald]] and his brother [[Simon Donald|Simon]].
:''The referees made a mistake. Well, accidents happen. Referees are volunteers, and get very little reward for their service to the community. Sometimes they get overwhelmed ... and get careless. Sometimes they don't want to admit that they don't understand a paper. Sometimes they read their own ideas into a paper. Two referees are better than one, but once in a while they'll both make mistakes.''
It is said that the Roma influenced much of the Geordies' words eg. "charva" is an old word meaning child in Roma and used by Geordies to describe troublesome people. The word "gadgie" for man is derived from the similar-sounding Roma word for a non-Roma. There is a high percentage of Roma origins in the North East and Newcastle hosts a large Gypsy travelling-fair, the "Hoppins", which has been held annually on the Town Moor every year for over a century.
On the other hand, theoretical physicist Lubos Motl comments:
==Famous Geordies==
:''...it does not surprise me much that [one of the referees of the thesis and for "Annals of Physics"] Roman Jackiw said that the paper satisfied everything he expects from an acceptable paper - the knowledge of the jargon and some degree of original ideas. (And be sure that Jackiw, Kounnas, and Majid were not the only ones with this kind of a conclusion.)''
*[[Paul Gascoigne|Paul Gascoigne (Gazza)]], footballer
An indication of the impact that these theories may have on theoretical physics can be inferred by the references made to them in subsequent papers by other theoretical physicists (3 references today on [http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/wwwcite?rawcmd=FIND+a+bogdanoff SPIRES] database for a total of 6 published papers and one unpublished preprint).
*[[Ant and Dec]], television presenters
*[[Peter Beardsley]], footballer
*[[Michael Bridges]], footballer
*[[Catherine Cookson]], author
*[[Steve Cram]], athlete
*[[Bryan Ferry]], [[Roxy Music]], musician
*[[Robson Green]], actor
* Tim Healey, actor
*[[Brian Johnson]], [[AC/DC]] singer
*[[Mark Knopfler]] of [[Dire Straits]]
*[[Jayne Middlemiss]], television presenter
*[[Jimmy Nail]], actor and singer
* Sir [[Bobby Robson]], former footballer, club and England national team manager
*[[Ridley Scott]] and [[Tony Scott]], film directors
*[[Sting (musician)|Sting]], actor and musician
*[[Alan Shearer]], footballer
*[[Paul Smith]], [[Maximo Park]] singer
*[[Andy Taylor]], [[Duran Duran]], musician
*[[Peter Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gosforth]], late [[Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales]]
*[[Neil Tennant]], [[Pet Shop Boys]], musician
*[[Chris Waddle]], footballer
* Kevin Whateley, actor
*[[Harry Woolf, Baron Woolf]], former [[Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales]]
*[[Ross Noble]], comedian extraordinaire
[[Category: ProtoscienceTyne and Wear]] ▼Meanwhile, the Bogdanovs continue to vigorously defend their work as genuine and to stand behind their original claims. The general topic of "before the Big Bang" is a complicated and technical field, and their work purports to present forward-looking theories.
[[Category: PseudoscienceBritish English]] ▼
[[nn:Geordie]]
In 2004, the Bogdanovs published a highly successful popular-science French-language book, ''Avant Le Big-Bang'' ("Before the Big Bang"), based on a simplified version of their theses, where they presented their own approach amongst other cosmological models. In the framework of a short weekly television program, created by the Bogdanovs in 2002, a 90-minute [[cosmology]] special broadcast went on the air on the French channel [[France 2]] in August 2004. Both the book and television show have been criticized for scientific inaccuracies, while others admire the Bogdanovs' ability to bring the subjects of cosmology and [[relativity]] to a wider audience.
==See also==
*[[Scientific consensus]]
*[[Consensus science]]
*[[Pseudoscience]]
*[[Protoscience]]
*[[Junk science]]
*[[Fringe science]]
==External links==
*[http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/bogdanoff A discussion of the controversy].
*[http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/bogdanovs1.htm Additional discussion with various people related to the brothers].
*[http://ybmessager.free.fr/docs/potpourri.html «Pot-Pourri» from Igor & Grichka Bogdanov's Before the Big Bang].
*[http://users.skynet.be/catherinev/engindex.htm#documents Theses and scientific publications]by Igor and Grichka Bogdanov.
*[http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1441745 J. Giorgis article] in ''The Economist''.
*[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/11/01/physics_hoaxers_discover_quantum_bogosity/ Physics hoaxers discover Quantum Bogosity] in ''The Register''.
*[http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/string/archives/000377.html Urs Schreiber] blog.
*Jacques Distler ([http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/archives/000375.html 1], [http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/archives/000017.html 2]) blog entries
*Peter Woit ([http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/blog/archives/000034.html 1], [http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/blog/archives/000036.html 2], [http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/blog/archives/000208.html 3]) blog entries
*The Bogdanovs' personal web sites:
** [http://phys-maths.edu.lv/ Mathematical Center of Riemannian Cosmology]
** [http://imp.quantumfuture.net/ International Institute of Mathematical Physics]
*[[John Baez|Baez, John]], "''[http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/crackpot.html The crackpot index] : Method for rating potentially revolutionary contributions to physics.''".
*Kruger, Justin, and David Dunning "''[http://www.phule.net/mirrors/unskilled-and-unaware.html Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments]''". Department of Psychology, Cornell University.
[[Category:Theoretical physics]]
▲[[Category:Protoscience]]
▲[[Category:Pseudoscience]]
[[Category:Sociology of scientific knowledge]]
[[fr:Polémique autour des travaux des frères Bogdanoff]]
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