Chinese professor ridiculed over attack on Einstein that was nominated for science award
- Li Zifeng, who claims to have ‘overthrown’ the theory of relativity, is in the running for an education department prize in Hebei
- Language he used in the research proposal harks back to the Cultural Revolution, when Einstein was a main target of criticism
A university professor who claims to have “overthrown” Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity has caused an uproar in China after his research proposal was nominated for a science award.
Li Zifeng, a professor of petroleum engineering at Yanshan University in Qinhuangdao, Hebei, had proposed a theoretical physics study that suggested philosophy, such as Marxism, should guide physics and be used to correct “mistakes” in the discipline.
It was one of 96 projects nominated for a natural science award by the Hebei provincial education department in early June.
“Scientific value [includes] overthrowing Einstein’s theory of relativity which has misled the physics discipline and humanity in the basic understanding of the world, and removing a huge obstacle to the healthy development of science,” said Li’s proposal, which has since been deleted from the education bureau’s website.
Proposed by Einstein in the early 1900s, the theory of relativity transformed physics and astronomy, and can be found in the workings of many technological innovations, such as the global positioning system used for navigation.
Li was ridiculed on Chinese social media after his proposal and award nomination were first reported by online news site Dazhong News.
He said the proposed research had not yet started and being nominated for the award was mostly to “promote truth”. There was very little chance of him winning, Li said, according to the report.
Li declined an interview request from the South China Morning Post, saying he was exhausted and that Yanshan University had granted him a leave of absence.
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In 1968, the Chinese Academy of Sciences formed a Mao Zedong Thought study group composed mostly of bureaucrats, which described Einstein’s theory of relativity as “one of the biggest obstacles preventing the advance of natural science”, according to a 2006 China Youth Daily article.
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However, Fang Shimin, a US-based scholar and commentator who has been exposing pseudoscience and fraud for 20 years, said Li’s case was not the same as the attacks on Einstein during the Cultural Revolution. One was a personal exercise and one was a state-sponsored campaign, he said.
“But their fundamental goal is the same, which is to use politics to attack science,” Fang said.
The Hebei education authorities deserved the most criticism over the incident, according to Fang.
“It’s absurd that the Hebei education department nominated this kind of ‘research’ for an award. It’s essentially encouraging and supporting pseudoscience,” Fang said.
The education department did not return calls and messages requesting comment.
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Physicist and science communicator Yuan Lanfeng, from the University of Science and Technology of China in Anhui, said he had seen many such “civilian scientists” who pushed unproven scientific discoveries or inventions. The problem this time was that a government agency had nominated the proposal for a scientific award, he said.
“To me and my friends, we could see straight away that this was behaviour of a typical ‘civilian scientist’. In the past 100 years or so, many have said they would overthrow the theory of relativity, [Li] is not the only one,” Yuan wrote on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, on Tuesday.
“However, what was different this time was the support from a government department, which elevated a ‘civilian scientist’ to a ‘bureaucratic scientist’. This debacle is truly tragic and comical.”
This is not the first time Li has come out against Einstein and the theory of relativity, according to Yuan. He said Li and others had gatecrashed an astronomy and physics conference in the Hebei capital Shijiazhuang several years ago, disrupting proceedings and harassing attendees. Li had unsuccessfully tried to report the conference organiser to local police, Yuan said.
