In the last semester, the Mythbusters, organised by Prague EPS Young minds section, tackled one of the many conspiracy theories surrounding the LHC at CERN. Though the level of falsehood was astonishing, most of the statements presented are easily disproved and are based on complete lack of knowledge of the subject. This time, the Mythbusters have chosen less public, but partially more challenging target.
Gabor Fekete is notorious figure in the physics community. Many of those working in the field have received at least one email from this person – proclaiming most of the modern physics false and introducing new theory of particle mass. Fekete boldly challenges modern discoveries ( e.g. last two Nobel prizes awarded in physics – Higgs Boson and Neutrino oscillation), but as most of conspiracy theories he fails to deliver any evidence and his counter-theory is base of false usage of established theories.
True malice of this persona however does not come from annoying spamming of vast number of physicist, but from false and unlawful impersonation of various prominent figures. He has pretended to be for example Peter Higgs or various members of Nobel committee. Though probably everyone can see through this deceit, it only shows that his claims cannot stand on its own merit and Gabor Fekete has to lower himself to such methods.
The Mythbuster’s presentation focused mainly on debunking the “Fekete theory”, where we tried to accurately present his theory and point out inconsistent usage of physical formulas. Further we disproved the accusations made against modern physics, defending for example Higgs boson discovery, where Fekete claims only one Higgs was observed (which is preposterous only because it was observed separately on two experiments).
The presentation was accompanied by refreshments in form of sandwiches and cakes. The event was attended by approximately 20 people and was well received, followed by conversation between presenters and the audience. It was for example pointed out that people from CERN also tend to get messages from Gabor Fekete.