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To: The_Victor
"I wouldn't be writing about my findings if I weren't confident that I were correct. But that's probably just me."

Yep, it is just you. A few of the most noble purposes of scientific publishing are to invite debate, reveal evidence found and provoke commentary on the working hypotheses. Unless otherwise stated, few scientists will claim to have the last, correct word on any subject.

19 posted on 04/19/2006 1:18:46 PM PDT by muir_redwoods (Free Sirhan Sirhan, after all, the bastard who killed Mary Jo Kopechne is walking around free)
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To: muir_redwoods; The_Victor
Yep, it is just you. A few of the most noble purposes of scientific publishing are to invite debate, reveal evidence found and provoke commentary on the working hypotheses.

Someone should tell the CRIDers that "Because the Bible Says So" or "abracadabra" (ID) is not "debate" nor "commentary."

26 posted on 04/19/2006 1:40:33 PM PDT by freedumb2003 (Don't call them "Illegal Aliens." Call them what they are: CRIMINAL INVADERS!)
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To: muir_redwoods
"I wouldn't be writing about my findings if I weren't confident that I were correct. But that's probably just me."

Yep, it is just you. A few of the most noble purposes of scientific publishing are to invite debate, reveal evidence found and provoke commentary on the working hypotheses.

Nonetheless, scientists do sometimes jump the gun. According to some sources, even some Physics Nobelists have done so.

Can't find the quote now, but there is an episode in Nobel Dreams (by Gary Taubes, IIRC) concerning Carlo Rubbia and his claim of the discovery of the Z particle.

There was a dispute with one of the female scientists about the "tracks" from which the Z was inferred, and when challenged, Rubbia said, "It was a good Z, it just wasn't a perfect Z." (or words to that effect).

Later, to another colleague, Rubbia said, "Women just don't know how to play poker"...

Taubes quotes another colleague as pointing out that when a prior high-energy physicist [whose name escapes me] had come up with evidence for a particular particle, "he had spent months checking his instruments. And yet his signal stood out like the Eiffel Tower." Taubes quoted the colleague to criticize Rubbia for how quickly he had rushed his results to publication.

Full Disclosure: The book's ISBN is 1556151128. I read it twenty years ago and am quoting from admittedly hazy memory; the book is probably mouldering in my garage somewhere and I don't have the time to go out and get the quotes perfect. Second Disclosure: I don't know whether Taubes is considered reliable, or a hack writer. Yes, Rubbia won the Nobel prize for his discoveries. But if the accounts in the book are correct, it sounds like he did push the envelope a bit...

Cheers!

63 posted on 04/19/2006 7:52:53 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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