" I didn't doubt the correctness of the information for an instant - I still tend to trust the pronouncements of scientist in the way I trust those of surgeons, plumber, and other possessors of arcane and privilaged information - but I couldn't for the life of me conceive how any human mind could work out what spaces thousands of miles below us, that no eye had ever seen and no X-ray could penetrate could look like and be made of. To me that was just a miracle. That has been my position with science ever since. "
Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dear Bill,
the answer is very simple. Nobody knows. The fact that scientists claim to know doesn't actually imply that they do. Today, science is like business - you manage to sell your product and you can make people believe that our planet is expanding, that the inner core is empty space or whatever you are convinced is the truth. You're not selling - bad luck- why should anybody believe you. Even worse - industry will believe the scientists who promise profit - who cares about the evaluation of the facts anymore?
So where is the purist believe in science today? There is none - science is bullshitting crap just in order to publish something because that is all that matters - quantity not quality.
that's a real sad development... science like it was at the time of a DaVinci, Huygens, Keppler and Humboldt (just to mention a few) is long gone... science became business like everything is nowadays... nevertheless there will be always scientics who'd rather research to gather information instead of reputation... they might not be successful in the sense of those career-orientated people in the short run but in the long run that's what counts (hopefully)
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