8/2/15
Interview with Roger Shawyer, the inventor of EM drive (17:55)
Here's a word from NASA about ...
Shawyer's EM drive
And here's a word from neurologist Steven Novella
declaring the EM drive "bullshit" (including my replies)
Even the most powerful skeptics, like Novella,
occasionally make mistakes that violate basic skeptical principles.
No one is in a position to make "pronouncements," like he did,
on scientific projects still in progress (for example: string theory).
In the skeptical community we worship neither deities nor authority figures.
Everyone is fair game, even Novella.
What separates a "rationalist" from the crowd is,
how we deal with those mistakes when we make them, as we all inevitably do.
Here is Novella, writing about a year later, giving a beautiful demonstration of ...
how a Rationalist corrects his mistake
That was the article Novella should have written the first time.
He is still obviously skeptical, as are we all,
but this time he avoided passing judgment ("bullshit") prematurely.
After Novella wrote the second article I committed a major blunder.
I told him that he should have written that in the first place.
It was some time later that I realized my mistake.
Instead of criticizing him for his mistake,
I should have commended him for demonstrating
one of the most important skeptical principles of all.
UPDATE - 11/25/16
Shawyer's EM drive was published in a peer-reviewed journal
ANOTHER UPDATE - 1/11/17
This is the proper way to deal with in-progress scientific research ...
which stretches one's credulity (first 10 minutes)
THE SAGA CONTINUES - 5/22/18
Further tests point to a possible answer ... but not a definitive one
permanent link
(click here first, then copy from address bar above)