On Thu, 9 Oct 2003, Andrzej Marecki wrote:

----- Forwarded message from NatureAlert -----

[...]

Dodecahedral space topology as an explanation for weak wide-angle temperature correlations in the cosmic microwave background JEAN-PIERRE LUMINET, JEFFREY R. WEEKS, ALAIN RIAZUELO, ROLAND LEHOUCQ & JEAN-PHILIPPE UZAN http://info.nature.com/cgi-bin24/DM/y/eMJG0BfWLH0Ch0EeW0Ay

[...]

----- End of forwarded message from NatureAlert -----

Nature's politics require embargo for articles before they are in the current issue on Nature so the authors couldn't post it on astro-ph but hope they'll do so. ;-)

If you read the policy carefully you'll see that posting on astro-ph is OK under certain conditions - something like 24h before the embargo or 7 days before the embargo - but it's a long time since i last thought of trying a publicity stunt in Nature, so i don't remember exactly.

The abstract is clear about the content - i don't think anyone should hold their breath - it looks like there's no discovery, this is just marketing/media/ propaganda stuff. Andrzej Woszczyk is honest enough to use the word "propaganda" when talking about Urania and publicity about astronomy, but i guess the politically correct words to use for Nature are "publication in the most prestigious scientific journal".

Anyway, this should make it easier for us to publish a few topo articles and satisfy people of the article-counting mentality.

Cosmic topology is no longer "politically incorrect". :)

pozd boud