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markx says:
Simple strategy. Never, ever admit you were wrong.
Just smoothly brush that all under the rug, then move on to the next stage of the research, and hopefully remain at the forefront.
I’ve seen this in biological sciences. I was at a conference years ago where a lead researcher in one field (probably regarded as the world’s leading expert) was openly mocking what we all thought was some very good research coming out of Europe. Within a year or two he realized the Europeans were correct, smoothly changed horses, did some similar reasearch of his own, and is still the highly respected world expert in the field. At no stage have I heard him apologize or mention that he was, for a time, mistaken.
However, good people, from the point of view of ‘science’, this IS all progress.
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Keith Jackson says:
As I remember, when this came out the first time (in 2000) there were cries of outrage from the environmental activist community… the very idea that we might get by without destroying the world economy was complete heresy. Hansen was in grave danger of losing his guru status! I have long suspected that this very danger may well have had a hand in shaping his subsequent behavior.