PeterS wrote:
And if not for a consensus John Dalton would still be sitting on his theory waiting for it to hatch as would Darwin, Einstein, Curie, and on down the list. Science cannot move without a consensus of scientists to support it. This is why no matter how hard you guys (Christian Conservatives) huff and puff you can't knock down the theory of evolution because there is too vast of a consensus of scientists who support it. And while you cons have done a magnificent job of muddying the waters surrounding global warming there still exists a number of scientists well in excess of a plurality to form a consensus that global warming is real and man the most likely reason for the speed at which it is accelerating. No nice try Blade but the Ayes have it and a consensus means' you are wrong....
And if not for a consensus John Dalton would still... (
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Before you set yourself up as an authority on the history of science and scientific research, maybe you should study the subject. Find some sources that haven't undergone political revisionism, sources in which the theories and research has not been politicized.
The discovery of the atom and its sub-particles and the work that led scientists and engineers to developing the atomic piles, the reactors, and the bombs was in no way the result of consensus, it was long and arduous independent research and experiments by scientists all over the world--in Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Canada and USA. These scientists, primarily physicists and chemists, took the premises of Dalton's atomic theories and developed their own hypotheses, engineered their own unique experiments--including building their own apparatus, soldering circuits, manufacturing test equipment and containment units, even did their own precision glass blowing. In some cases, scientists worked in teams of two or three to approach a problem. And, although these scientists shared the results of successful experiments with others--mostly through publications and letters, they did not all get together and come to a consensus.
I guess the best way to explain this is, a group of scientists can get together and come to a consensus on a hypothesis, but they have no control over the results. They agree on a hypothesis, set up and conduct the experiment, and then let the process lead them where it goes. The experiment either proved the hypothesis or it didn't. There was no scientific consensus on the outcome.
The best example is the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. Many of the brightest scientific minds in the world, including Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, Edward Teller and Hans Bethe, were assembled there under the authority of the US Army, commanded by General Groves. Groves demanded the research teams be isolated, under heavy security, and compartmentalized, each team of scientists and engineers had a specific problem to solve. Even the explosives and gunnery engineers were separated from all other elements of the project. Oppenheimer finally convinced Groves that free discussion was necessary. These meetings (free discussions) did not result in any scientific conclusions, the scientists merely came to an agreement on how best to approach a specific problem, how to best frame a hypothesis that would lead to a positive result. IOW, the "consensus" came before the outcome.
And, it is interesting to note that, once the first atomic bomb was assembled on the tower at Alamagordo, and the countdown had begun, there was no consensus among the scientists and engineers on the outcome. They were even making bets on what would happen when the bomb detonated--some said it would probably fizzle, others thought it would create a chain reaction in the atmosphere. None of them were 100% convinced the thing would work.
The scientific method does not allow for a preconceived result, it does not assume that any hypothesis is proven before the experiment has proven that the observations and data are valid. Put simply you ask a question, do the background research, construct a hypothesis, then test with an experiment. If the procedure is not working, you troubleshoot the procedure, carefully check all stages and set-up, and run it again. If the procedure is works, you analyze the resulting data and draw conclusions. If the results align with or prove the hypothesis, you publish the results. If the results align only partially or fail to prove the hypothesis, you go back to the beginning, check the data and background research, ask a new question, construct a new hypothesis, reset the experiment and try again.
The Anthropogenic Global Warming alarmists did not do this. The Anthropogenic Global Warming alarmists concluded that global warming is a fact and that mankind is the cause, so they reverse engineered the entire thing. The bulk of their work relied on computer models into which they fed selected observations and data in hopes of a positive confirmation that mankind was f*cking up the atmosphere and destroying the planet. They manipulated their data, tweaked their observations, altered their computer program and modeled it so it would prove their hypothesis. The common term for this sort of subterfuge is called
JUNK SCIENCE.