Editing Bogdanov affair (section)

===''Rayons X'' and ''Avant Le Big Bang''===
{{anchor|pop science criticism}}
In 2002, the Bogdanovs launched a new weekly TV show ''Rayons X'' (''[[X-ray|X Rays]]'') on French public channel [[France 2]]. In August 2004, they presented a 90-minute special cosmology program in which they introduced their theory among other cosmological scenarios. The French mainstream media, in both the press and on the Internet, covered the renewed controversy to some extent; media outlets that reported upon it include ''Acrimed''<ref name="acrimed"/> and ''Ciel et Espace.''<ref name="fosse">{{cite news
  | last = Fossé
  | first = David
  | title = ''La mystification Bogdanov''
  | work = Ciel et Espace
  | pages = 52–55
  | date = October 2004
  | url = http://ybmessager.free.fr/docs/ciel-et-espace-bogda1.pdf
  | access-date = 2019-07-21
  | language = fr
  | archive-date = 2018-09-23
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180923113934/http://ybmessager.free.fr/docs/ciel-et-espace-bogda1.pdf
  | url-status = dead
  }}</ref>

[[Image:Golden Rectangle Construction.svg|thumb|The [[golden ratio]] φ, here shown as the long side of a [[golden rectangle]], is a solution to an [[algebraic equation]] and thus not a [[transcendental number]].]]
In 2004, the Bogdanovs published a commercially successful popular science book, ''Avant Le Big Bang'' (''Before the Big Bang''), based on a simplified version of their theses, where they also presented their point of view about the affair. Both the book and the Bogdanovs' television shows have been criticized for elementary scientific and mathematical inaccuracies. Critics cite examples from ''Avant Le Big Bang'' including a statement that the "[[Golden ratio|golden number]]" [[Phi|φ]] (''phi'') is [[Transcendental number|transcendental]], an assumption that the [[limit of a sequence|limit]] of a decreasing [[sequence]] is always zero, and that the [[Metric expansion of space|expansion of the Universe]] implies that the planets of the [[Solar System]] have grown farther apart.<ref name="acrimed"/>

In October 2004, a journalist from ''Ciel et Espace'' interviewed [[Shahn Majid]] of [[Queen Mary, University of London]] about his report on Grichka Bogdanov's thesis. Majid said that the French version of his report on Grichka's thesis was "an unauthorized translation partially invented by the Bogdanovs." In one sentence, the English word "interesting" was translated as the French "''important''". A "draft [mathematical] construction" became "''la première construction [mathématique]''" ("the first [mathematical] construction"). Elsewhere, an added word demonstrated, according to Majid, that "Bogdanov does not understand his own draft results." Majid also described more than ten other modifications of meaning, each one biased towards "''surestimation outrancière''"—"outrageous over-estimation". Majid said that his original report described a "very weak" student who nevertheless demonstrated "an impressive amount of determination to obtain a doctorate."<ref name="fosse"/> Later, Majid claimed in a Usenet post that, in an addendum to ''Avant Le Big Bang,'' Grichka intentionally misquoted Majid's opinion on the way this interview had been transcribed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://groups.google.com/g/fr.sci.physique/c/uQdhtoiIKRA/m/B6VWIAnMcjYJ?hl=en |title=Bogdanovs |first=Shahn |last=Majid |website=Google Groups |date=2004-09-30 |access-date=2024-06-20}}</ref>

{{anchor|Schreiber comment}}
Additionally, in the same addendum, a critical analysis of their work made by Urs Schreiber, and affirmed by the Bogdanovs as "very accurate", was included with the exception of the concluding remark "Just to make sure: I do not think that any of the above is valid reasoning", thus inverting the meaning from criticism into ostensible support.<ref name="schreiber"/> Moreover, a comment by physicist Peter Woit written as, "It's certainly possible that you have some new worthwhile results on [[quantum group]]s", was translated as "''Il est tout à fait certain que vous avez obtenu des résultats 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.<ref name="fosse"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/blog/archives/000034.html |title=Bogdanovs Redux |last=Woit |first=Peter |website=Not Even Wrong |date=2004-06-05 |access-date=2019-07-21}}</ref>