A New Zealand man, who was invited to submit a paper on nuclear physics despite having no knowledge of the subject succeeded -- using his iPhone’s autocomplete function!
Christoph Bartneck wrote on his blog, “Today I received an invitation from the International Conference on Atomic and Nuclear Physics to submit a paper. Since I have practically no knowledge of Nuclear Physics I resorted to iOS auto-complete function to help me writing the paper. I started a sentence with “Atomic” or “Nuclear” and then randomly hit the auto-complete suggestions.”
“The text really does not make any sense. I know that iOS is a pretty good software, but reaching tenure has never been this close.”
A sample from the ‘research paper’ read, “The atoms of a better universe will have the right for the same as you are the way we shall have to be a great place for a great time to enjoy the day you are a wonderful person to your great time to take the fun and take a great time and enjoy the great day you will be a wonderful time for your parents and kids.”
Bartneck titled his paper “Atomic Energy will have been made available to a single source” and furnished it with references and an image picked up from Wikipedia. He even crafted a fake identity for the submission: “Iris Pear”, playing around with the words “Siri Apple”.
His paper was accepted three short hours later. However, Bartneck told The Guardian that he’d have to pay US$ 1099 to go to the conference to speak about his ‘research’.
{{/usCountry}}His paper was accepted three short hours later. However, Bartneck told The Guardian that he’d have to pay US$ 1099 to go to the conference to speak about his ‘research’.
{{/usCountry}}“I did not complete this step since my university would certainly object to me wasting money this way. My impression is that this is not a particularly good conference,” he said.
The International Conference on Atomic and Nuclear Physics will be held on November 17 and 18 in Atlanta, Georgia in the US.