Science has always struggled to sift crackpot ideas from genuine maverick genius. If it were just a matter of combining unambiguous data with flawless theories, the task would be quite simple. Unfortunately, says Harry Collins, science is an all-too-human activity, and heroes and villains come in every possible guise.
I was at a closed conference with friends and acquaintances from the gravitational wave world, a group I have studied and written about for 30 years. The dress code was informal – T-shirts and jeans, or open-necked shirts and sports jackets for the older scientists. There at the podium was a…
