> It's time to stop pretending academics are a medieval nobles who grow faint at the idea of their sacred honor being besmirched. With huge salary opportunities for bold populist claims academics will take big risks to achieve choice jobs even if they think they will eventually be discovered.

Exactly. We are finally starting to see the unwinding of the 20th century scientist myth. With the advent of corporate culture in the academia, it now attracts and nurtures very different personality types.