The head of the RAS Commission for Combating Pseudoscience said that they did not discuss the reorganization of the commission with him

The RAS Commission for Combating Pseudoscience is planned to be reorganized, transferring its functions to the Expert Council of the RAS, but the head of the commission, academician Evgeny Aleksandrov , does not know what measures are planned to be taken. He told Gazeta.Ru about this.

“I talked with the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gennady Krasnikov , to whom I wrote some of my thoughts on improving the work of the commission. He listened to me, did not say anything about the fact that such a decision had been made, and it became known to me two months after it was made. I can only focus on the speeches of the head of the Expert Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences Stepan Kalmykov, who says that this does not mean the elimination of the commission, but only a reorganization, ”explained Aleksandrov.

However, Alexandrov was not informed about how exactly the commission was planned to be reorganized.

“Until now, no one has told me anything about it. I hope this is not an abolition. Although, of course, the commission has long been a mote in the eyes of scammers who claimed to receive the budget under the pretext of all sorts of wonderful discoveries in the field of weapons, energy, treatment of people, and so on. Of course, we constantly interfered with them,” he said.

According to Alexandrov, the reorganization may be associated, among other things, with an excess of requests for consideration of inventions and projects that are far from always related to science.

“I think it’s just that the Presidium apparatus is overloaded with appeals from all sorts of inventors, and it decided not to consider this, but immediately transfer it to the Expert Council. And the Expert Council will already use our commission. I believe this is another step towards ordering. At first, our commission enjoyed great freedom, in particular the freedom to communicate with the press. A few years ago, a resolution was adopted that all our actions are already regulated by the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, now there is a further streamlining. What it will lead to is unknown. Practice will show,” he said.

The decision to reorganize was made in December 2022. According to the head of the Expert Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences Stepan Kalmykov, it is connected with the desire to reduce the number of various commissions and councils under the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.