When someone tells you “the science is settled” realize they’re neither a scientist nor right. Need proof? Read this. Astrophysicists are having a hell of a time dealing with an odd planet and the repercussions to orbital mechanics, something many would have figured was “settled” over the past 400 years. So next time someone tries to baffle you with the “science is settled” bullshit statement ignore them. Science is never settled. It’s a journey of discovery. If someone claims it’s settled there’s invariably a political motive behind it, not a scientific one. And science and scientists are never afraid of a good debate. Skeptics are welcome, since they keep us scientists on our toes — in fact a good scientist should be the most skeptical about his or her own work. Indeed, all good scientists should always be skeptical. It’s the nature of the business. Plus, what is proposed by a skeptic may well turn out to be true. One doesn’t need to dig deep in the annals of science to discover a lot of non-conformist science was, indeed, the most accurate theory to describe the facts. In the past century plate tectonics comes immediately to mind, for example.
