Physics Forums

[Siggy_G]

I just came over this forum thread related to Plasma Cosmology on Physics Forums (after a search on the topic - thread is a year old). A quite interesting and annoying discussion at the same time. It shows the arrogant attitude of the academic cosmology establishment. The only good thing though, is that the forum mentors seem to both lift the ban of the plasma cosmology topic (they banned it at first!), as some members defended it, and the mentors also eventually admit some restricted insight and seem more open to discussion. One of the defenders of the topic seems to have been banned (nick appears with streak).

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=205440

Feel free to comment / discuss. Some dilemmas:

- the demand for published peer reviewed papers, while the reviewers are of a "certain" establishment.
- the demand for references to papers published in mainstream journals, while the latter is governed by a certain establishment.
- the availability of project funding, when the investors/funds are from the establishment and/or of Christian origin, whose interest is to maintain our current paradigm.
- plasma scientists not being allowed to have a say on cosmology, because they're not astrophysicists.
- plasma experiments in terrestrial laboratories being ignored, as they're supposedly not representative for plasma dynamics in space, whereas exotic theoretical and mathematical hypotheses are applicable.
- anything derived from or crowned with Einstein's equations is apparently not subject to further questioning or investigation.
- in order for something to be academic acceptable, one must use academic references - i.e. build upon the current paradigm.

[mharratsc]

Ya know- I read through that whole thing...

That Nereid in there is a feisty gal, and I found that I appreciated her candor and her humor... even if I did disagree with her opinions and I feel that Physics Forums plays by a double standard.

Here's the problem with Physics Forums in a nutshell:

They talk about being the place to discuss Physics! (kettle drums in the background)... but go on to state that "any physics that you want to talk about must be based off of someone's published, peer-reviewed and mainstream-rejected paper.

I think everyone who's followed any of the forums for any of the EU/PC sites is well aware that there are many 'crackpots' running around, and there should be necessary defensive mechanisms in place to prevent them from running rampant through a forum...

... but to say that the only material that will even be allowed to be discussed must be "published, peer-reviewed" topics seems to be the height of insecurity to me.