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Alfvén was another example of a scientist who got no respect during his lifetime, but turned out to be right while his colleagues were wrong, and a better scien
by ncmncm 5y ago
Alfvén was another example of a scientist who got no respect during his lifetime, but turned out to be right while his colleagues were wrong, and a better scientist than them.
Plasma fluid dynamics still does not get anywhere near the respect it deserves. And, Enceladus does not have geysers, it has jets.
I say this not as a plasma fluid physicist.
- kryptiskt 5y agoHe did win a Nobel prize so he did get some respect, at least from his Swedish colleagues.
- cinntaile 5y agoPeople are rarely wrong or right across the entire spectrum. To give a concrete example... He was a center figure in the anti-nuclear movement in Sweden and one of the reasons to oppose fission was because he thought fusion was right around the corner. 50 years later and fusion is still right around the corner.
- ncmncm 5y agoAny reason, it turns out, was good enough; each reactor not built is one that won't cost another $billion to dismantle. Fusion, as currently conceived, will never happen, so that's OK. If D-3He or p-B11 ever works, we will need it in the outer solar system, and we will owe him for laying essential groundwork.
- cinntaile 5y agoMy point was that he was right about some things and wrong about other things.
- ncmncm 5y agoAs are we all. (Well, except me: reliably wrong.) What matters is, right about the important things. Nikola Tesla had plenty of seriously wacky notions, but his 3-phase electromagnetics built the world.