The Manti Te'o of Physics

theodp writes "When it comes to tales of fake girlfriends, Manti Te'o can't hold a candle to theoretical particle physicist Paul Frampton. In November 2011, writes the NY Times' Maxine Swann in 'The Professor, the Bikini Model and the Suitcase Full of Trouble,' Frampton met who he says he thought was Czech bikini model Denise Milani on Mate1.com. A Yahoo Messenger romance bloomed, at least in the 68-year-old Frampton's mind (Frampton's ex-wife was a self-described 'physics groupie'). But before starting their perfect life together, fake Denise asked Frampton for one little favor — would he be so kind as to bring her a bag that she had left in La Paz, Bolivia? Yep, bad idea. The UNC Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy soon found himself in a Buenos Aries prison, charged with transporting two kilos of cocaine into Argentina. Currently serving a four years and eight months sentence under house arrest, Frampton reportedly continues to supervise his two current PhD students by phone, and still finds time to post to the Physics archive."

It doesn't really add up

[damn_registrars]

It's hard to believe that he could really be that oblivious to how the real world works. The messages he sent from Bolivia where he talks about the value of cocaine, and evading authorities, don't help his case, either.

Re:It doesn't really add up

[dywolf]

http://www.boobpedia.com/boobs/Denise_Milani [boobpedia.com]

Man has good taste

AN OMG moment

[MouseTheLuckyDog]

I did not meet Frampton but In the 80's I knew several of his students. So that's 2 degrees.
All I can say is wow.
This guy not only was a professor, he was one of the guys inventing the thing that eventually became String Theory only at the time it was called Dual Resonance Models. He also wrote a book on QFT that was generally on everyone's suggested reading list. Virtual every high energy physicist has heard of him.