Quote:
Originally Posted by Topher Cooper  Scientists are people with a normal attachment to their own prior beliefs. Of course they would like to make a stunning, world-changing discovery, but being human they want to find that discovery somewhere that they are comfortable. |
This is just silly. The most respected and idolised scientists are exactly the ones who revolutionised our view of the world. There is nothing comforting in quantum mechanics or relativity. Every aspirational scientist would like to do the same.
A large percentage of papers are rejected because they lack novelty. The most "paradigm" changing papers are published in the highest ranking journals.
The idea that scientists are just sheeple is by and large a post hoc excuse to explain away the lack of acceptance for somebodies pet idea. I hear it all the time from HIV denialists, ID proponents, homeopaths and physics-kooks who claim that Einstein was wrong.