CONFLICT and science are inseparable partners. Having thought up a bold idea and a way to test it, researchers must convince other scientists that their idea is better than the prevailing one. This is an exacting, time-consuming and often painful business 鈥� and sometimes it goes awry.
This week a paper is published by a young researcher named Shahriar Afshar describing an experiment that he believes explodes an 80-year-old orthodoxy in quantum theory (see 鈥淨uantum rebel wins over doubters鈥�). It has been a long road. Afshar failed to post his paper on the Arxiv database apparently because of a mix-up over his affiliation. Journals rejected it out of hand. New 杏吧原创 covered his work after quantum physicists advised us that, right or wrong, it raised important issues. Regrettably, Afshar was then chastised for talking to the press.
Aspiring scientists should expect to run the gauntlet of their peers, but they should not have to put up with the abuse to which Afshar was subjected, including attacks on his honesty and his religion. Why the extreme reaction? Perhaps people thought an experiment as simple as his must be wrong. Perhaps those who interpret quantum theory are unused to seeing their pronouncements put to the test. Whatever the reason, there can be no excuse for this kind of treatment.
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Today鈥檚 technology lets us test the thought experiments that led Niels Bohr to his strange interpretation of the quantum world, and young researchers should be encouraged to use it to the full to question such ideas and delve deeper into reality. Personal insults will do nothing for them or for scientific progress. It is entirely the wrong kind of conflict.