The geopolitics of astrophysics

Geopolitics have been floating around this month in different contexts. A weaker opponent challenges a larger one in order to call the attention of the world or the rap industry. A couple of weeks ago, Hao Liu and Ti-Pei Li decided to play the geopolitics of astrophysics by challenging the WMAP results. They claimed that there is a problem with the maps generated by the WMAP team that would alter some cosmological model parameters. So, it's really great that a David (Two Chinese researchers) challenges the results of a much stronger team (WMAP in this case). The problem is that the paper is really thin on the details, so I figure we will likely forget about it soon. The lesson, do challenge scientific results if you think that something is wrong but do it in a way where the readers can understand and reproduce your arguments. Otherwise, you'll basically be ignored by the rest of the world.