Misc

Here is a nice description of how establishment scientists co-opt the ideas of others so they never have to admit they were wrong and they never lose their privileged positions.

"There have been several instances in the past when the astronomical mainstream has long rejected an idea that is later accepted.  There is usually no public disgrace for the in-group who were on the wrong side of the issue.  When, after being viciously denigrated, the validity of a new idea becomes inescapably obvious, a few years go by, and then we quietly hear: "Well, Everyone has known for a Long Time that this (the new idea) was always true."  An example of this is Hannes Alfvén's discovery of plasma waves. This relatively recently discovered property of plasmas is now being wrongly used by astrophysicists to explain away all sorts of (what is for them) enigmatic phenomena - such as the temperature inversion in the Sun's lower corona.

The Future

In a few years, perhaps we will hear: "Well, Everyone has known for a Long Time that quasars are not extremely distant, and red shift is more a measure of the youth of an object than its recessional velocity and distance.  No one said for sure there ever was a Big Bang.  It was just another false theory.   Everyone has known for a Long Time that electric currents flowing in plasmas produce many of the mysterious observed solar and cosmic phenomena."  And we will not hear of machos, wimps, neutronium, dark energy, and broken magnetic field lines from any serious scientist ever again."

The electric universe theory is so tremendously different from the theory that gravity dominates the universe, it will be really hard for the top dogs to stay on top. If that transition comes, many will be gently advised to retire, but others will undoubtedly co-opt these ideas.