Character assassinations and career beheadings in the name of "the one true science" happens far more often than the science priesthood would care to admit. I've been reading a book that includes an account of nearly forgotten jihad involving the Austrian scientists Ernst Mach and Ludwig Boltzmann. For years Mach led a series of unrelenting assaults on Boltzmann over Boltzmann's belief that matter comprised atoms and molecules--a notion ridiculed by the physics establishment of the day. Boltzmann eventually comitted suicide.
As illustrated by this latest episode, the science establishment continues to succumb to its lamentable inclination to attack "infidels" with narrow-minded and ignorant zeal.