Rejecting and resisting new ideas in science[1]
Juan Miguel Campanario
Universidad de Alcalá, Facultad de Ciencias, Campus Universitario, Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Spain,
Erika Acedo
Universidad de Alcalá, Facultad de Ciencias, Campus Universitario, Alcalá de Henares (Madrid),Spain,
We study some instances of resistance to new ideas and new discoveries in science.
Introduction
The history of science is dotted with stories documenting how many important discoveries were initially resisted or ignored by fellow scientists [Barber, 1961]. The worse scenario can also play out: scientific contributions effectively silenced [Sommer, 2001]. We have also studied instances taken from autobiographies, personal accounts, and so. We have studied scepticism by part of the scientific community toward discoveries that eventually would be awarded with the Nobel Prize. In some instances, we can recognize the phenomenon of “delayed recognition”.
Instances of resistance to new discoveries and ideas in science
*James L. Hudson and Harrison G. Pope with co-workers Jeffrey M. Jonas and Deborah Yurgelun-Todd made some studies that tested the hypothesis that bulimia is closely to major affective disorder [Hudson, Pope, Jonas, and Yurgelun-Todd; 1988]. This hypothesis challenged the prevailing view that bulimia was a complex, multifactorial disorder, caused by intricate psychological factors, and treatable only with talking therapy. So, maybe because of this controversy, they had difficulties obtaining funding. Four successive grant applications to the National Institute of Mental Health for studies of eating disorders were turned down. Nevertheless, their findings were widely replicated by other centres and by them.
*Don Williamson has an original paper on larval transfer that was based on published observations by respected biologists. The paper showed that the types of larvae and methods of metamorphosis of many animals are inexplicable in terms of natural selection. This paper was rejected by seven journals whose comments were from “irrelevant” to “untruthful”. Also, a book on the same subject was rejected by seven publishers, but finally accepted by an eight (Larvae and Evolution: Toward aNew Zoology, Chapman Hall) [Williamson, 1995].
*W. S. Bullough wrote an initial paper about the discovery that cell division is controlled by tissue-specific mitotic inhibitors, (“chalones”), and not as was previously believed by mitotic stimulants [Bullough, 1978]. This was published in Cancer Research not without certain resistance, adding “a speculative review” to his original title. However, it has taken more than 10 years for the chalone concept to become generally accepted in the scientific community. During this period of time the evidence linking chalones to cancer has gradually become overwhelming and he tried to publish a follow-up review proving this evidence but ,this time, Cancer Research declined to publish it.
*In June 1932, Dr. C.F. Koelsch submitted a paper to the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) about the synthesis of pentaphenyl allyl radical, unknown at that time. A referee rejected the manuscript basing on the high reactivity of free radicals towards oxygen, turning implausibility into impossibility [Lazlo, 1987]. 25 years later Koelsch resubmitted the article again to the same journal and this time the barely modified article was accepted.
More instances are available in the URL .
Rejecting Nobel class discoveries
*Twice the Journal of Chemical Physics rejected in 1965 the key paper that led to the 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry so rightfully awarded to Richard R. Ernst [Ernst, 19886]. The editors claimed that the contents of originality were insufficient for publication in such journal. In consequence, Ernst had to publish his findings in the less known Review of Scientific Instruments [Ernst, 1991].
*Gerd Binning and Heinrich Rohrer are famous for developing the scanning tunnelling microscope for which they received the 1986 Nobel Physics Prize. Their first attempt to publish a letter describing the scanning tunnel microscope failed [Binning and Rohrer, 1986, p. 397].
Elsewhere, we have collected more instances of this kind of problems ( )
Conclusions
Scientists often face daunting challenges related not only to the research difficulties but must also to convince peers that their achievements are worth to be published and accepted.
A cheap and simple way to avoid scientific suppression is for every issue of a journal to devote a page to a list of authors and manuscript titles that have been recently rejected plus a full URL address in the journal web page from which the rejected manuscript can be downloaded [Campanario and Martin, 2003]. Readers interested in these manuscripts could download them and judge at their own risk.
REFERENCES
Barber, B. (1961) Resistance by scientists to scientific discovery, Science 134, 596-602.
Binning, G. and Rohrer, H. (1986) Scanning tunnelling microscopy from birth to adolescence, (The Nobel Foundation).
Bullough, W.S. (1978) `Citation Classics on Cancer Res. 25, 1683-727, 1965’(Originally published in Current Contents, Number 20, May 15, 1978).
Campanario, J.M. and Martin, B. (2003) “Rejected but available”: A new way for journals to be open to innovative ideas. European Science Editing, 29, 73.
Ernst, R.R. (1991) Autobiography, (The Nobel Foundation).
Hudson, J.I.; Pope, H.G.; Jonas, J.M. & Yurgelun-Todd, D. (1988) `Citation Classics commentary on Brit. J. Psychiat.. 142, 133-8, 1983’. Originally published in Current Contents , Number 5, February 1, 1988.
Lazlo, P. (1987), Petite Chronique Archéologique: A Delayed Publication. New Journal of Chemistry, 11, 5.
Sommer, T.J. (2001) Suppression of scientific research: Bahramdipity and Nulltiple Scientific Discoveries, Science and Engineering Ethics 7, 77-104.
Williamson, D. (1995) New Scientists Magazine, 148, 75, November 18.
Appendix: Some Nobel Laureates who encountered resistance to their discoveries awarded with the Nobel Prize. Details:
Arrhenius, Svante (Chemistry, 1903), Beadle, George W. (Physiology or Medicine, 1958), Benacerraf, Baruj (Physiology or Medicine, 1980), Binning, Gerd (Physics, 1986) Blobel, Günter (Physiology or Medicine, 1999), Blumberg, Baruch S. (Physiology or Medicine, 1976), Boyer, Paul (Chemistry, 1997) , Brown, Herbert C. (Chemistry, 1979), Burnet, Frank Macfarlane (Physiology or Medicine, 1960), Cech, Tomas R. (Chemistry, 1989), Cohen, Stanley (Physiology or Medicine, 1986), Cormack, Allan MacLeod (Physics, 1979), Crutzen, Paul J. (Chemistry, 1995), Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan (Physics 1983), Cherenkov, Pavel A. (Physics, 1958), Doherty, Peter C. (Physiology or Medicine, 1996), Erns, Richard R. (Chemistry, 1991), Fleming, Alexander (Physiology or Medicine, 1945), Fowler, William A. (Physics, 1983), Furchgott, Robert F. (Physiology or Medicine, 1998), Gabor, Denis (Physics, 1971), Gell-Mann, Murray (Physics, 1953), Glashow, Sheldon Lee (Physics, 1979),
Heymans, C. (Physiology or Medicine, 1938), Ignarro, Louis J. (Physiology or Medicine, 1998), Karle, Jerome (Chemistry, 1985), Kohn, Walter (Chemistry, 1988), Kornberg, Arthur (Physiology or Medicine, 1959), Krebs, Hans (Physiology or Medicine, 1953), Kroemer, Herbert (Physics, 2000), Kroto, Harold W. (Chemistry, 1996), Lee, David (Physics, 1996), Levi-Montalcini, Rita (Physiology or Medicine, 1986), Lipscomb, William N. (Chemistry, 1976), Michel, Harmut (Chemistry, 1988), Milstein, Cesar (Physiology or Medicine, 1984), Mullis, Kary (Chemistry, 1993), Murad, Ferid (Physiology or Medicine, 1998), Ochoa, Severo (Physiology or Medicine, 1959), Onsager, Lars (Chemistry, 1968), Osheroff, Douglas (Physics, 1996), Perl, Martin L. (Physics, 1995), Polanyi, John (Chemistry, 1986), Prusiner, Stanley B. (Physiology or Medicine, 1999), Richardson, Robert C. (Physics, 1996), Robdell, Martin (Physiology or Medicine, 1994), Rohrer, Heinrich (Physics 1986), Rous, Peyton (Physiology or Medicine, 1966), Ruska, Ernst (Physics, 1986), Shockley, William (Physics, 1956), Smith, Michael (Chemistry, 1993), Staudinger, Hermann (Chemistry, 1953), Taube, Henry (Chemistry, 1952), Temin, Howard M. (Physiology or Medicine, 1975), Tiselius, Arne (Chemistry, 1948), Townes, C.H. (Physics, 1964), von Klitzing, Klaus (Physics, 1985), Von Laue, Max (Physics, 1914), Wigner, Eugene P. (Physics, 1963), Willstätter, Richard Martin (Chemistry, 1915), Yallow, Rosalind (Physiology or Medicine, 1977), Yukawa, Hideki (Physics, 1949) , Zernike, F. (Physics, 1953)
[1]Funds provided by the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (PAI-03-001) supported this work.