Kremlin's Favorite Innovator Pushes Dubious Science, Russian Researchers Say

Friday, March 5, 2010 - 12:56 in Physics & Chemistry

Inventor claims breakthroughs come to him under self-induced hypnosis Russian leaders have occasionally demonstrated a weakness for pseudoscience during the nation's history. Now Russian scientists have rallied to expose Viktor Petrik, a modern-day inventor whose supposed innovations -- realized under self-hypnosis -- have won over the Kremlin. Petrik's ideas include a way to produce silicon for computer chips from fertilizer and a filter that can turn radioactive waste into safe, drinkable water, the Wall Street Journal reports. The war of words has escalated in recent weeks. One physicist on the pseudoscience commission of Russia's Academy of Sciences called Petrik the "master of bluff," and said that months of investigation had concluded the inventor's ideas are either scientifically impossible or plagiarized from others. Articles critical of Petrik have also appeared recently in the national press. Controversy spiked last spring when the Academy of Sciences appeared to nominally endorse 11 of Petrik's discoveries at an...

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