Thread by @AstroKatie

I realize it’s easy to get a lot of attention by shouting “ACTUALLY SCIENTISTS ARE TOTALLY WRONG ABOUT THIS” but it gets a bit tiresome.

We are *always* working toward a better understanding of the Universe. We don’t have it all solved yet, but we actually do know some stuff!

Here’s how it works:

SCIENTIST: I have an idea to explain this data
OTHER SCIENTISTS: Here are all the reasons you might be wrong
[DECADES OF ARGUMENTS]
MOST SCIENTISTS: Ok maybe it could work
SOMEONE ON YOUTUBE: The scientists didn’t consider they might be WRONG!
SCIENTISTS: 🙄

Anyway if you see someone approach a scientist with a question like “have you ever considered that maybe this is all BS?” the answer is likely “yes, we considered it & answered referee reports suggesting it & spent decades trying to find better solutions & this works best so far”

Quick addendum to this: there have always been, and always will be, scientists who act in dishonest and/or unethical ways. Because they are humans. That’s WHY the scientific process of discussion and peer review and the whole community exists, and that’s why consensus matters.

The whole point of the process is to save us from ourselves by throwing us at each other.

Every scientist wants to be right & have a breakthrough. That causes bias. So we have incentives to say “maybe your breakthrough isn’t real; that’s MY breakthrough!” Ideally it balances out