Id take what you say about amateurs worrying what professionals don't to be true for the most part, but it's also not always true. Even in physics.
Iirc about a hundred years ago when we were trying to measure electron diameter, several iterations of scientists bsed there results assuming the last guy was accurate. Dark matter has a lot of similar mysticism and I would not be at all surprised to see a metric shit ton of scientists just being sheep and going along with incorrect models. I'd also not be surprised if they were all spot on too.
For reference in grad school I worked in a neutrino lab right by a dark matter lab underground. So I'm not an expert but do have decent exposure.
I didn't say it was always true, I said it was almost certainly true. I stand by that.
Untrained amateurs are right from time to time, but given that they have almost no basis for their assumptions except gut feelings, it basically comes down to chance.
I'm not arguing that scientists can't be wrong, certainly not. I'm arguing that believing they are, or even believing you have a valid criticism, without understanding on what they base their arguments, because "it sounds reasonable" or "scientists are sheep" is deeply intellectually dishonest.
You are referring to the electron charge, not diameter which cannot be measured.
Certainly there is bias in physics but I don't recall any occasion where amateurs where correct and experts not (in fundamental physics, that is). This may occur in fringe fields but is highly unlikely in fundamental stuff.
Fair enough, but at the same time dark matter has been around a while and we're no closer to understanding it other than a few ideas about what it isn't. I do think it's a candidate for a very interesting paradigm shift, which there has been before in physics and maybe that's more what I'm getting at. I'll be real I've had a long weekend.
Iirc about a hundred years ago when we were trying to measure electron diameter, several iterations of scientists bsed there results assuming the last guy was accurate. Dark matter has a lot of similar mysticism and I would not be at all surprised to see a metric shit ton of scientists just being sheep and going along with incorrect models. I'd also not be surprised if they were all spot on too.
For reference in grad school I worked in a neutrino lab right by a dark matter lab underground. So I'm not an expert but do have decent exposure.