[b said:
Quote[/b] (jon @ June 05 2004,5:24)]That's what's interesting, alot of this stuff people discover is automaticly shunned and pushed away by the scientific community because of their "reputations" would be at stake.
Yes, there's no doubt that happens, and occasionally some 'alternative explanation' will finally hit the mainstream and become accepted. There is, however, a reason that these things take a while to be accepted, and that's because it requires more than simply a millennias worth of tradition about some remedy (for example) being useful to get it accepted by the scientific community. Real proof takes careful, controlled, repeatable studies. And it's for that reason that the so-called "cold fusion" thing that people are still bandying around here hasn't gone anywhere, not for anyone's fear of reputation. It has been tried, and found lacking in repeatability or even usefulness as a power source. Have you looked at the exotic setup necessary for the experiment?
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]People are still trying to ignor the whole "aether of the universe" thing and it's slowly (thanks to the internet) coming back as the answer to alot of problems in quantum physics.
I'm curious what you are referring to. I'm not aware of any quantum-physical problems that are solved by positing the existence an 'aether'. At least not in any of the QM classes that i've taken recently.
Back on the issue of traditional 'medicine' (because this one i have seen both sides of the coin): my father is an MD, and it can be said without exaggeration that he's very, very anti "traditional remedies". Not only has he lost patients (no pun intended) to foolishly-taken 'harmless' herbal treatments on the side of approved treatments, but he regularly has to deal with cases where a patient has avoided professional medical care, preferring to patronize the assorted quacks that build their fortunes on the current popularity of anti-doctor philosophy, and finally end up in the ICU under his responsibility, when they could have recovered much earlier with real care.
I'm also appreciative and in awe of the amazing spectrum of chemical defenses and other enzymes that nature has arrayed for our discovery and use, and fully believe we have a long way to go before finding all the best 'herbal remedies' and making them targetted pharmaceuticals. (May we find them before we exterminate the source.) So i
can see both sides of that viewpoint. It's the people who occupy the fringe and sling mud at the established methods for not immediately accepting their own pet method just because they want to make a buck or like attention that bother me.
But anyway, rant aside, i am interested in others opinion regarding the space-based solar power problem. Have you any equally viable solutions without the big caveat of the transmission problem?