I find it interesting - that it seems to be "de rigour here" - for anyone who disagrees with an idea, to attack the person who posted it, rather than
debunk the information they posted.
I see that as a sign of weakness.
For example the intimation is that Einsteins special relativty theory underwent a rigorous peer review process before it was published by the
prestigious physics journal in which Einstein's Special Relativity paper was first published. In 1905 the famed peer-reviewed German journal "Annalen
der Physik" published Einstein's first paper on the Quantum Solution to the photoelectric problem.
That unique and widely acclaimed paper had just won Einstein the Nobel Prize. To win the prize, obviously many esteemed physicists had reviewed that
paper and established its reality and correctness.
But also in that very same journal issue, Einstein published several other avant-garde theoretical papers, including his "Special Theory of
Relativity" which contained the math error. Why did no one catch the obvious error?
It was simply because chief editor, Max Planck or co-editor, Wilhelm Wien, had made the fateful decision not to send Einstein's Relativity paper out
for the usual in-depth peer review. That Relativity paper, along with Einstein's other papers, were published without any scientific review.
Both of the young editors, Planck and Wien, won Nobel Prizes themselves. They had made the editorial decision for "Annalen der Physik" that since
Einstein had already just received a Nobel Prize, his prestige and popularity meant that his papers did not need to be peer reviewed.
It could be that Planck and Wien felt that publishing anything written by Einstein would enhance the popularity and circulation of the journal. But
using the usual peer review process would slow down publication of the exciting new Einstein papers until the next year. Or it could be that Planck
and Wien were so overawed by the genius of Einstein that they felt Einstein had no "peers." For whatever reason, the journal editors, with their high
regard for the Nobelist Einstein, simply "broke the required rules" for publishing new theories in the "peer reviewed" physics journal.
It seems from the historical record that none of the other scientists around the world in the physics community knew that the journal had broken its
own publication rules. The other scientists all assumed that since "Annalen der Physik" was a strictly "peer reviewed" journal, that Einstein's
Relativity paper, with the simple math error, had already been reviewed and approved by a team of highly esteemed elite scientists. But not so.
**Perhaps someone could direct me to the library collection that holds the peer review comments of the scientific peers of Einstein who peer reviewed
his Special relativity paper - I'd very much like to read them!**.
Ohh - maybe Einstein just passed his papers out at a "computer" conerence - ha ha ha..
**A link to the peer review comments anyone?**
Cheers
edit on 4/12/10 by ianmoone1 because: (no reason given)