Controversial Italian scientist loses 11 papers from journal he used to edit

Alberto Carpinteri is something of a Renaissance man.

Along with championing a highly controversial form of energy generation called “piezonuclear fission,” which involves crushing rocks, the engineer has argued that the Shroud of Turin really is as old as Jesus, but carbon dating was thrown off by an earthquake.

Not everyone agrees with his ideas: In 2012, more than 1,000 scientists signed a petition asking the Italian National Institute of Metrological Research (or INRIM, of which Carpinteri was director at the time) not to fund piezonuclear fission.

Carpinteri was also editor in chief of the journal Meccanica until 2014, when Luigi Gambarotta took over. Now, Meccanica is retracting 11 of its former EIC’s papers, including the one on the Shroud, and a number on piezonuclear fission, which Wired Italy put on their list of “most famous science hoaxes.” The reason? According to the notice, “the editorial process had been compromised.”

Blogger Sylvie Coyaud, whom Carpinteri accused of defamation and blasphemy over her coverage of the Shroud of Turin paper, caught the retractions first. According to Coyaud, Carpinteri has a history of suing people he doesn’t agree with (including Coyaud herself).

Here’s the notice Springer is running for all 11 papers (make sure to click over to the second page to see them all!):

This article has been withdrawn by the Publisher and the Society in agreement with the Editor-in-Chief due to conflict of interest reasons. In a commitment to scientific integrity we decided to withdraw the article as the editorial process had been compromised.

We’ve reached out to Carpinteri and will update if we hear back.

Here’s a complete list of the papers:

• “Is the Shroud of Turin in relation to the Old Jerusalem historical earthquake?” A. Carpinteri, G. Lacidogna, O. Borla
• “The Sacred Mountain of Varallo renaissance complex in Italy: damage analysis of decorated surfaces and structural supports.” Federico Accornero, Stefano Invernizzi, Giuseppe Lacidogna, Alberto Carpinteri
• “Ultrasonic piezonuclear reactions in steel and sintered Ferrite bars.” F. Cardone, A. Carpinteri, A. Manuello, R. Mignani, A. Petrucci, E. Santoro
• “Correlated fracture precursors in rocks and cement based materials under stress.” G. Niccolini, O. Borla, G. Lacidogna, A. Carpinteri
• “Piezonuclear evidences from tensile and compression tests on steel.” Stefano Invernizzi, Oscar Borla, Giuseppe Lacidogna, Alberto Carpinteri
• “Correlation between acoustic and other forms of energy emissions from fracture phenomena.” Giuseppe Lacidogna, Oscar Borla, Gianni Niccolini, Alberto Carpinteri
• “Elemental content variations in crushed mortar specimens measured by Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA).” Alberto Carpinteri, Oscar Borla, Giuseppe Lacidogna
• “Alpha particle emissions from Carrara marble specimens crushed in compression and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of correlated nuclear transmutations.” Alberto Carpinteri, Giuseppe Lacidogna, Oscar Borla
• “Piezonuclear neutron emissions from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.” Oscar Borla, Giuseppe Lacidogna, Alberto Carpinteri
• “Cold Nuclear Fusion explained by hydrogen embrittlement and piezonuclear fissions in the metallic electrodes—Part I: Ni–Fe and Co–Cr electrodes.” A. Carpinteri, O. Borla, A. Goi, A. Manuello, D. Veneziano
• “Evolution and fate of chemical elements in the Earth’s crust, ocean, and atmosphere.” Alberto Carpinteri, Amedeo Manuello

Update 4/23/15 2:50 p.m.: We heard from Meccanica editor Luigi Gambarotta:

with reference to your request I wish to point out that at the date when the 11 retractions of papers by Alberto Carpinteri in Meccanica were decided, the Editor in Chief in charge was Alberto Carpinteri, and the decision was taken by the Publisher and the Society AIMETA in agreement with him.

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