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Originally Posted by CraigS
Ok .. I've done some more thinking on all this .. there is clear evidence of pseudoscience.
There is also evidence of legitimate research in some of the links posted by Alex. (Not all .. just some).
I've just watched Don Scott's Youtubes (Alex's NASA link).
Scott's point he makes in this lecture is fairly innocuous. All he's saying (presumably, to mainstream AstroPhysicists), is 'try this on'.
Frankly, I can't see much wrong with this. Perhaps as the situation becomes more agitated, people revert to the extreme fringes in order to defend. This is just human nature .. nothing more.
The lack of maturity of the legitimate research when applying Plasma Physics to AstroPhysics could in fact be, the result of just what they claim .. that the concepts are rejected outright, without a lot of deliberation by those who reject it outright.
I'm not saying that legit scientists like Plait, Wright, etc aren't considering their ideas, but where it seems to fall apart is the lack of a track record of real supporting evidence in the cosmos, and the scalability of lab simulations.
But to use a recent example from here .. habitable zones/exoplanet life thread. It turns out that the search for life is driven purely from a 'matter of faith' motivator. There is no real evidence to drive the search. All these guys are asking for is a 'little faith' and support.
Is this so bad ?
Cheers
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Scott would have to be careful about what he said at NASA, simply because if he started to propose to them most of his ideas, he'd be shown the door. The simple fact he toned it down, and that he is a credentialed electrical engineer allowed him to get away with a few small things.
The reason why scientists get narky about this stuff is exactly for the sames reasons we do. These people propose theories, which have little or no verifiable evidence, science that is ambiguous at best and fraudulent at worst, and the temerity to come out and spin their nonsense as being legitimate science. Then when you ask them for the proof and evidence, they get either defensive about it or run a mile to avoid having to answer for themselves. That's why most scientists don't even bother with them.
The "results" they come out with are rejected on the basis of their science content and its veracity. Regardless of any shortcomings of the peer review system, it's far better to have at least some sort of control over what is considered to be good science than having it an open door policy to every nutcase and bad idea that gets bandied about. I think it was Carl Sagan (or someone equally as famous) that once said "It's always good to keep an open mind, but not that open it becomes a sewer". Otherwise, keep open to new ideas and such, but don't believe everything that comes out, without having a critical and logical appraisal of what it is you're considering.
The HZ/Life search may have an element of "faith" about it, but it's hardly not a highly thought out and considered subject. Despite the fact we only really have one example, these guys aren't silly and they do know this. Actually, I feel they're not doing too bad a job at the science, despite the limitations and the obvious speculative nature of the subject.
They could do better, though
