The plagiarism of modern Russian petroleum science by the one-time astronomer Thomas Gold is probably best described by the words of persons from whom he purloined that body of knowledge, before he published it without giving proper credit to its authors. In the following sections are presented copies of diverse letters dealing with the plagiarizing by Gold, both of the modern Russian-Ukrainian theory of deep, abiotic petroleum origins and also of other scientific (and also, emphatically, unscientific) ideas.
The first letter was written by an American journalist named John Briggs to Professor V. A. Krayushkin at the Institute of Geological Sciences in Kiev. The second letter is the reply from Professor Krayushkin to Briggs. The third letter is an earlier one from the geophysicist Dr. Richard A. Donofrio to the editor of Atlantic Monthly. The fourth letter is a relatively recent one from C. Warren Hunt to the editor of Infinite Energy. The last letter is one from Dr. I. N. Plotnikova to Thomas Gold, rejecting his attempt to insinuate a paper into the Proceedings of a Russian scientific conference, for reasons of lack of originality and failure to give proper citations of credit. A few words about each writer and letter follow.
Thomas Gold:
By nationality, Thomas Gold can be considered Austrian, or Swiss, or British, or American, or Israeli, for he has traveled under passports of each of those countries. He is an astronomer, having obtained a degree in Cambridge, England, shortly after World War II.
In the late 1970’s, Gold learned about the modern Russian-Ukrainian theory of deep, abiotic petroleum origins. Such was not hard to do, for there were then already thousands of articles dealing with modern petroleum science published in the mainstream Russian-language scientific journals, and many books and monographs; and Gold reads the Russian language fluently. Shortly thenafter, he began to publish the content of modern Russian petroleum science in various English-language magazines under his own name, without giving any attribution for its provenance, and misrepresenting it to be his own original work. Gold tried to make minor changes in this body of knowledge in order to give an impression of originality, and gave to it the spurious name of “the deep gas theory.” Also, he was prudent enough not to try to publish it in any serious, refereed scientific journal, where the refereeing (or, possibly, the readership) would likely have tripped him up.
Mr. John Briggs:
John Briggs is an American journalist. Near the beginning of the Swedish deep gas exploration project about fifteen years ago, Briggs was hired by some person(s) to write an article to discredit the project.
At the beginning of the deep gas exploration project, the Swedish government empanelled a high-level committee of senior scientists to scrutinize and evaluate both the 18th-century “biological origin” hypothesis for petroleum and also the modern Russian (at that time, Soviet) abiotic theory of petroleum. Briggs had read an article in the Swedish newspapers which carried the picture of several Russian petroleum scientists and a quotation from Professor V. A. Krayushkin ( in English), “Tommy Gold is nothing but a damned plagiarist.” Because at that time Gold was promoting himself in the media as some sort of “prime mover” of the Swedish deep gas exploration project, Briggs sought to obtain more information. Briggs wrote to Professor V. A. Krayushkin at the Institute of Geological Sciences in Kiev, Ukraine, enquiring about Gold’s factual connection to the modern Russian-Ukrainian theory of deep, abiotic petroleum origins. The letter from Briggs to Professor Krayushkin is the first letter presented below; the reply from Professor Krayushkin is the second.
Briggs must have been surprised by the information which he received about the modern Russian-Ukrainian theory of deep, abiotic petroleum origins, and about the lack of connection of same (except via the exercise of plagiarism) with Thomas Gold. Although Professor Krayushkin’s letter put Gold into a very different perspective, it also established that the scientific provenance of the theory upon which the Swedish deep gas project was based had staggeringly greater extent and legitimacy than he [Briggs] had imagined. Briggs never published anything of what he learned from Professor Krayushkin.
Professor Vladilen Alexeivich Krayushkin:
No man stands in more vivid contrast to Gold or Briggs than does Professor Vladilen Alexeivich Krayushkin. Professor Krayushkin is a man of unflinching moral probity, as well as an extraordinary scholar. He is also the greatest petroleum exploration geologist alive today, anywhere.
Professor V. A. Krayushkin is the senior petroleum exploration geologist for the government of Ukraine. Professor Krayushkin was originally a graduate student of the great scientist Academician V. B. Porfir’yev and has now succeeded Porfir’yev in the position of chief petroleum geologist at the Institute of Geological Sciences in Kiev. Unlike the mountebank Gold and in vivid contrast to him, Professor Krayushkin has published more than 250 original papers in refereed scientific journals dealing with the modern Russian-Ukrainian theory of deep, abiotic petroleum origins. Professor Krayushkin is one of the major contributors to the modern theory of petroleum. Professor Krayushkin has also discovered many oil and gas fields applying modern Russian petroleum science.
The letter which Professor Krayushkin wrote to Briggs, in response to the questions which Briggs had posed concerning Gold’s true connection with the modern Russian-Ukrainian theory, is as thoroughly damning as it is scholarly in its carefully researched exposition of evidence. Professor Krayushkin’s final words truly lay the matter on the line:
“... ‘Gold’s theory’ is the bicycle reinvented repeatedly by T. Gold, and that [can be said] only if we were to take the kindest position and if only we should not chose to evaluate ‘Gold’s Theory’ as undoubted plagiarism in all its aspects and in all its component parts (key and even peripheral).”
Dr. Richard R. Donofrio:
The third letter presented below is one from the American scientist Dr. Richard R. Donofrio to the editor of the popular (and, emphatically, non-scientific) magazine Atlantic Monthly. Dr. Richard R. Donofrio is a mainstream geophysicist, presently at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles dealing with the subject of bolide impacts and the potential of such locations for petroleum exploration.
In his letter of May 1986, Dr. Donofrio complains about Thomas Gold having plagiarized also his [Donofrio’s] work on bolide impact structures, and their potential as petroleum reservoirs. As Dr. Donofrio’s letter demonstrates, Gold’s predisposition for plagiarism is by no means restricted to modern Russian petroleum science.
Mr. C. Warren Hunt:
The third letter presented below is one from the Canadian-American geologist C. Warren Hunt to the editor of the journal Infinite Energy, a journal devoted mostly to the development of fusion energy. In his letter to the editor of Infinite Energy, Warren Hunt complains about Gold having plagiarized also his [Hunt’s] ideas that the origin of petroleum is by microbial action. Hunt’s complaint is well founded; for he had enunciated this idea years before any similar suggestion was heard from Tommy Gold.
Dr. I. N. Plotnikova:
Lastly, there is presented below a copy of a letter of rejection written to Thomas Gold from Dr. Irina N. Plotnikova, on behalf of the Organizing Committee of the petroleum conference held in Kazan, June 2001. That conference commemorated the 50th anniversary of the enunciation of the modern theory by the great geologist Kudryavtsev.1
Gold had then the incredible temerity to try to insinuate into the Proceedings of that conference a paper purportedly dealing with the subject of self-replenishing petroleum reservoirs, - and (again, and as usual) without giving credit to a single Russian petroleum scientist. The keynote speaker for this conference was Professor Rh. K. Muslimov, an expert in that very subject, and one from whom Gold had purloined “his[sic]” ideas. As Dr. Plotnikova’s letter makes plain, that of replenishing petroleum reservoirs has been a active subject of study for years in Russia.
Dr. Irina N. Plotnikova is a senior petroleum exploration geologist for the National Petroleum Company of Tatarstan (TatNeft; ticker symbol TNT, London stock exchange). Dr. Plotnikova was a graduate student of Professor V. A. Krayushkin. She represents the third generation of petroleum geoscientists in the former U.S.S.R. to practice modern Russian petroleum science.
The listing of these letters can be seen on the table of contents for them.