A good example of the validity of Planck's observation to "fit reality" is to look at how plate tectonics were initially rejected, then embraced a generation later.
On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 8:49 AM, Joshua Cude <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 5:16 PM, Kevin O'Malley <[email protected]>wrote: > >> http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_Planck >> >> Max Planck: >> >> A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and >> making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, >> and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. >> >> >> The irony is that not only is this not true, and that cold fusion is > seeing it work the other way, but Planck himself is a counter-example. > > > Some pathological beliefs, like N-rays and the planet vulcan, only really > disappeared when the believers died. In cold fusion, the strongest and most > active proponents are still the ones that were there from the beginning > (There are some exceptions like Duncan and Zawodny). Cold fusion is likely > to continue to fade away by attrition, although it clearly has a surprising > staying power. > > > Planck was slow to accept the idea of photons, but he did not have to die > to increase their acceptance: about 10 years after Einstein introduced > them, Planck came around. And of course, all the architects of modern > physics, including Planck, were alive and well before they could conceive > of relative time or discrete energy. So, the statement really doesn't fit > reality, and I suspect he said it in jest. > > > >
