Jim Moody points to this news article, “Why have papers by one of history’s most famous physicists been retracted? Springer Nature has removed two studies by Max Planck. A bot may be to blame.”
If you’re gonna retract something from Max Planck, I’d suggest starting here, with the notorious Manifesto of the Ninety-Three German Intellectuals defending Kaiser Wilhelm’s invasion of Belgium. Here are a couple of retractable passages:
It is not true that the life and property of a single Belgian citizen was injured by our soldiers without the bitterest self-defense having made it necessary.
It is not true that our troops treated Louvain brutally. Furious inhabitants having treacherously fallen upon them in their quarters, our troops with aching hearts were obliged to fire a part of the town as a punishment.
I guess they were the world’s most moral army. “Aching hearts” . . . that must have absolutely sucked. Really mean of those Belgians for defending themselves.
Just to be clear, I’m not saying that Planck should be “canceled.”
Who among us hadn’t retroactively disgraced ourselves with a lachrymose defense of military aggression?
I’m just saying, if you have to retract a paper by Max Planck, I’d retract that one.
P.S. The funny thing is that the above-linked article describes the famous physicist as “almost as widely revered for his character as his physics. In 1933, for example, he bravely confronted Adolf Hitler over Nazi Germany’s discriminatory laws against Jews.” I’ve never read anything about Planck’s life so I don’t know what changed with him between 1914 and 1933. Maybe the loss of the war in 1918 soured him on armed adventures.
From the article:
‘Gingras was especially incensed that Springer Nature deviated from the normal practice of merely slapping the word RETRACTED across the digital version of the paper while still allowing scholars to read the text. Instead, the publisher posted a blank white page with the cryptic phrase, “This article has been withdrawn due to article violation.” Springer Nature is nevertheless still selling the empty PDF for $39.95.’
Incredible.
I laughed at that too. Publishers continue to demonstrate depths that I had not thought it possible to plumb. We entrust them with cataloguing scientific progress!
But maybe they’ll sell you the Manifesto of the Ninety-Three German Intellectuals for a mere $19.95.
I thought this was hilarious: ‘Representatives from Springer Nature declined to comment, beyond saying that “detailed information about specific retractions is usually confidential and can only be shared with the relevant authors.”’
I suppose they sent an email to the ghost of Max Planck when they retracted his article? Maybe we can arrange a session with a medium to dispute the retraction!
Louvain was just casually mentioned today so here is what it is surprisingly famous for currently:
“Belgian cities Leuven (Louvain) and Luik (Liège) are surprisingly at the center of the global banana industry. KU Leuven houses the world’s largest banana genebank, while Luik acts as a major European logistics hub for importing and distributing the fruit.”
And, to ruin your day, note that:
“The global banana supply is primarily threatened by Fusarium wilt Tropical Race 4 (TR4), a lethal soil fungus, and climate change, which accelerates disease spread and extreme weather. Because the most consumed variety—the Cavendish—is seedless and cloned, it lacks genetic diversity, making it highly susceptible to these widespread pressures.”
“The beloved Cavendish banana is not expected to go extinct entirely, but it could disappear from grocery store shelves within the next decade due to a devastating soil fungus called Tropical Race 4 (TR4), or Panama disease. Because commercial bananas are clones without seeds, they lack the genetic diversity to fight off the fungus.”
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True story: when my wife was very, very young, she and her family lived in Panama for a summer. On a local road excursion, coming the other way was someone transporting a huge load of local bananas. They asked in Spanish if he had any “platanos” for sale. He said he had no “platanos” because his particular bananas were not “platanos” but had some other specific local designation and type. We in the U.S. tend to have a very restricted banana type for sale commercially.
I don’t know if anything changed with Planck between 1914 and 1933. In 1914, one could easily be a German nationalist and a philo-Semite. Heck, in 1914 one could be a German nationalist and a Jew! To go even further, a Jewish German nationalist of 1914 could play a major role in what we consider today to be war crimes. Fritz Haber–the great German chemist–played a very active role in German chemical warfare during WWI.