Re:Researchers looking for mRNA were ridiculed by colleagues
by MaxBarraclough on Sunday February 21, 2021 @04:27PM
(#26217392)
By rock the boat, I mean a discovery/publication that bothers a lot of people in the field. I am not referring to major breakthroughs in general.
Wiles' discovery was a tremendous breakthrough, but it didn't upset anyone. Another example of an entirely uncontroversial breakthrough is [0]. This is in contrast to the three examples of controversial discoveries that I gave above.
> If he had told people openly that THIS what he chose to spend his time on, without actually having the proof yet, he would have been ridiculed, because it seemed like such an utterly hopeless enterprise at the time.
I'd hope the field would be supportive of 'long shot' projects like this, but sure, I could believe many mathematicians would be skeptical.
Wiles' discovery was a tremendous breakthrough, but it didn't upset anyone. Another example of an entirely uncontroversial breakthrough is [0]. This is in contrast to the three examples of controversial discoveries that I gave above.
> If he had told people openly that THIS what he chose to spend his time on, without actually having the proof yet, he would have been ridiculed, because it seemed like such an utterly hopeless enterprise at the time.
I'd hope the field would be supportive of 'long shot' projects like this, but sure, I could believe many mathematicians would be skeptical.
[0] https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientists-break-tra...