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Originally Posted by skwinty
Any one have any comments wrt Terry Witt's Null Physics book advertised in various astronomy mags.
It is getting trashed as crackpot on the JREF forum.
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And rightly so in my humble opinion. I have not ready the book, but have studied the material on his site. Frankly I find many of his claims about physicists highly insulting.
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The foundational problems in physics are so old and deeply entrenched, and the theoretical physics community so resistent to change, that the most likely source of the next physics revolution lies entirely outside of this environment.
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Credibility is the coin of the realm in science, and there are quite a few good reasons, such as fear of losing funding, for a scientist to be conservative.
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This is no way comes even close to describing any of the scientists I know, have listened to, or have (briefly) collaborated with. They would give their eye teeth for actual solutions to oustanding problems and are working hard to find them. As to conservative, take a look at what people like John Webb are doing at UNSW, looking for changes in fundamental constants (like the speed of light) over the lifetime of the universe. This is way out the main stream physics & cosmology, but his work is real, serious science.
As to Witt's theories, it is not like these have not been investigated by other's, but discarded for various reasons. A review the existing literature would, I think, be beneficial.
In summary: There are many ways to do science, but hawking a book in astronomy magazines is not one of them.