There are people who are choosing, and there are reasons behind which might end up being better than others, but those are often half science and half politics.

There are people who are choosing, and there are reasons behind which might end up being better than others, but those are often half science and half politics. Sometimes the end up being done for less than justifiable reasons. One factor is looking at scientists that seem to have 'scienced' well in the past and favoring them over new scientists. This is more conservative in that less money is sent to random ideas that won't go anywhere, but also means that funding is trapped in more classical theories lead to incorrect models and theories sticking around for longer than they should.