[Flint]

Originally Posted by wolf

Peer reviewers have their own agendas, hobby horses, and pet theories...

I don't dispute that. However, statistically, the system is designed to root out flawed ideas (eventually).

I just read an interesting bit in Scientific American, in a review of two books which are critical of String Theory, which said that young Physiscists who don't even believe in String Theory, feel pressured to pursue it, because they feel they can get a Professorship that way. Apparently "that's the way the wind blows" by and large in the scientific community, right now. However, the fact that people are writing books expressly to criticize String Theory, and the books are getting press in Scientific American, indicates, to me, that a shift is taking place. In other words, science, the institution in principle, is rising above science, the institution in practice, exactly as it is designed to do.

Originally Posted by wolf

...woe be to the researcher who presents solid research that goes against conventional wisdom.

I don't dispute that, either. Science, like all human endeavors, can move at a glacial pace.

However, another thing that happens alot is something like an untrained hobbyist claims to have invented a perpetual motion machine in his garage, and then complains that the scientific community won't take him seriously. Usually there are fundamental errors in this type of "research" that a first-year college student could spot from a mile away. (Not to say that the guy might not be right, and the college coursework might be wrong, and this might all come to light, eventually...)

Also, another thing that happens alot is that those who criticize science as having an "agenda" have an even bigger agenda themselves.
Such as: religious dogmatists attacking evolution, etc. etc. etc.