APROPOS your news report (‘Breakthrough’ in magneto-kinetics, July 6). Your correspondent writes about a ‘scientific breakthrough’ being claimed by a group of people associated with various universities, including the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South Institute of Information Technology (COMSATS) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Over the years your newspaper has published similar claims by some of these people, including claims of receiving international awards.

What is troubling about this story is that two public-sector institutions, COMSATS and HEC, were named in the article but they have not publicly distanced themselves from this ‘scientific breakthrough’.

To its credit, it seems that the University of Punjab has taken some steps and removed the content related to this event from its website. It should be clear to anyone reading the press release that the writer knows nothing about physics and has almost randomly put together words.

It is a sad state of affairs and a story of continued decline of scientific literacy in the country. A few years back we all saw how the media and the scientific establishment were all in awe over a car being fuelled by water. All that was needed to debunk this pipedream that was some basic understanding of physics.

Amer Iqbal

Lahore

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2016