I sometimes say that the method of science is to amass such an enormous mountain of evidence that even scientists cannot ignore it; and that this is the distinguishing characteristic of a scientist. (A non-scientist will ignore it anyway.) Max Planck was even less optimistic:1 A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. I am much tickled by this notion, because it implies that the power of science to distinguish truth from falsehood
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