re: #26 Charles

By the way, being in the scientific minority doesn’t make you “wrong”. Likewise, acting in good faith doesn’t make you “right”.

As you know, science history is filled with scientists who were scorned or mocked by their peers for what later turned out to be major contributions. (In fact, the more significant the contribution, usually the more its resisted!).

There are “fashion trends” in science, and there is peer pressure to conform. The latter is especially pronounced now that grant money is largely controlled by review committees made up of academic dogmatists. If you stray too far off the beaten path, you can’t get grant money, and your science career will come to a screeching halt.

If you are in science, there is considerable pressure to put out results (ie “publish or perish”). And that leads to considerable pressure on individuals to “fudge” or even “entirely fabricate” data.