Quote:
Originally Posted by renormalised
In any case, Alfven was a cranky old man who thought he was right and everyone else was wrong.
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AND what is wrong with being a cranky old man who is never wrong! Some of my best friends are cranky old men as am I.
You young whippersnappers should show a little respect.
My boss once said of a very senior scientist in our field 'Dr X has done more for his field by dying than he ever did in life.'
It seems he suppressed any new ideas as he tried to control publication of new ideas that refuted his pet theories..
Young fresh scientists are the life blood of our enterprise. Without them we would atrophy. All the leading scientists have always thought that having many bright young students was just as important as the work. They led by example and put in a lot of effort even if it slows things down.
A decent leading scientist would also make sure that any major contribution by any of his students was correctly attributed. In the past this work was appropriated especially from women scientists.
I have a list somewhere where this happened. Pulsars (Jocelyn Bell) and the structure of DNA (Rosalind Franklin) come to mind.
Fortunately the truth always comes out even if a bit late.
Just keep questioning!
Bert