Ahhh...the weekend, when the thread drifts OT. Recent references
to the Y2K thread, homeopathy and other wacko ideas came to mind
when I ran across the following while browsing through back issues
of What's New:
aps.org
SUPPRESSION OF "NEW SCIENCE": BUDDY CAN YOU PARADIGM?
Those attending last weeks Annual Meeting of the
Society for Scientific Exploration in Albuquerque (WN 4
Jun 99), take pride in "thinking outside the box." Talks
on such uh, diverse topics as divine intervention, cold
fusion, biological transmutation, precognitive dreams,
psychosurgery, after-death communication, alien
breeding experiments, clairvoyance, electronic signaling
from the dead and prayer healing, were all accepted as
serious science. There is no internal criticism in a
community that believes it is under siege. Convinced
that powerful vested interests, including the scientific
establishment, are conspiring to hold back a scientific
revolution, speakers complained that "new" science is
denied funding, rejected by journal editors and even
subjected to ridicule, just because it doesn't fit some
outdated paradigm. Alas, to wear the mantle of Galileo it
is not enough that you be persecuted by an unkind
establishment, you must also be right. |
