COMMENT:Seven case histories of contentious scientific debate. An example among experiments which were later accepted is the 1919 Eddington observation of star displacements during a solar eclipse which were used to confirm Einstein's general theory of relativity. Eddington used considerable selection in the choice of available plates to get an answer in agreement with the new theory. The other extreme is a discussion of debate over whether memory can be acquired by eating: experiments carried out by McConnell on training planarian worms and then feeding them to other worms to see if they inherited the training. Further examples are cold fusion, Pasteur and origin of life, non detection of gravitational radiation, sex life of the whiptail lizard and the hunt for missing solar neutrinos. All the cases are interesting examples of self-delusion. Examination of some of the worst cases overstates the sociological viewpoint, but it does make clear how human a subject scientific progress is.
