On scientific dissent

Happened across this while looking up something else:

But being a dissenter from orthodoxy is not difficult; the hard part is actually having a better theory. Publishing dissenting theories is important when they are backed by plausible evidence, but this does not mean giving critics “equal time” to dissent from every finding by a mainstream scientist.

—Ted Goertzel, “Conspiracy theories in science” (EMBO Reports 2010)

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