Even though I don't agree with young Earth creationists, they claim that an international conspiracy has been suppressing science for decades.
I find it funny that, even though young Earth creationists and many global warming denialists claim to believe in God, they don't believe that God brings truth to the surface.
Ballistic missile defense comes close, where the evidence, if analyzed objectively, is fairly clear that it doesn't work. (See the work of Ted Postel at MIT on this subject, where he has shown that the damage in Israel from Iraqi SCUD missiles increased *after* the Patriot ABMs were deployed.)
There is a whole rich history on the flaws in BMD, starting with Pres. Droolcup's original SDI program (which, if you want to talk about wasting money, is so far ahead of climate change research it isn't even funny). That you are completely unaware of this controversy shows how effective this cover-up was. It is also interesting that largely the same group of people who claim that BMD is possible and cost-effective are also climate skeptics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Po...
http://fas.org/spp/starwars/docops/pl920...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_D...
Yes. The story involves Cassini and Roemer who locked horns over the question as to whether or not the speed of light was infinite. Cassini said it was infinite, Roemer said it wasn't, and the two went off and did their experiments. Later, Roemer presented his data.
What Cassini effectively did was take Roemer's data and say that it was consistent with his predictions all along, hence the speed of light was infinite. This was despite him saying the complete opposite before the experiment was conducted. Cassini was such an influential character that everyone in the academy simply supported him and pretended he was correct.
It was only when Cassini died that Roemer's work gained its rightful recognition.
Usually its the stupidity of the masses and not scientists. The Egyptians knew the earth was round, and knew within a few miles how far around it was. Same for the Chinese, thousands of years before Columbus took a wrong turn and hit America.
When Galileo discovered that the Earth revolves around the Sun, the Vatican threatened him to keep it quiet. It was finally revealed about 100 years later.
the tuskgee experiment.
1. I am absolutely and categorically NOT implying in any way shape or form, that there has ever been any meaningful conspiracy in climate science. The limited number of characters in the question line requires me to abbreviate my explanation there (in a way that might be misconstrued to pretend that there is such an implication) that this question seeks examples from fields OTHER than those concerning or closely related to climate science.
2. I will not bother to try to lift blocks on some of the "dissenters" from consensus science who regularly post here, but will also not object to -as a "random" example- Sagebrush copying this question so those "contrary thinkers" can address it, provided that such copying is done with a modicum of restraint from juvenile insults and misleading distortions.
3. Let us exclude, off the bat, a few of the stock myths regularly regurgitated here:
a) Piltdown Man and cold fusion were hoaxes, not conspiracies. They were exposed as such (the latter within days) and there was no effective conspiracy to suppress the exposure.
b) Continental Drift was an example of the scientific consensus being in error. But, as evidence mounted, the new paradigm became accepted through more or less normal channels of scientific discussion, research, and peer-reviewed publication. No conspiracy to speak of.
