"We should not too quickly judge, and thereby alienate, scientists who make controversial claims." Once Pons and Fleischman doubled-down on their position, the

"We should not too quickly judge, and thereby alienate, scientists who make controversial claims." Once Pons and Fleischman doubled-down on their position, they became their own worst enemies, but is seemed to me that they were initially just naive about the reception such an announcement would get. This was not a Rossi-style scam, or something that could have harmful consequences in the way that, for example, anti-vaccination pseudo-science does.