Practice What You Preach

Over the past week, I received hundreds of emails inspired by the new findings from the expedition to the Pacific Ocean, as summarized in a new scientific paper, accessible <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.15623.pdf" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>. Below is a representative sample of these letters to illustrate that innovation in scientific research is worthwhile well beyond the self-centered pleasure offered by academic conformity, awards and honors. I am grateful to be given the privilege of following my childhood curiosity through the tools of science. This privilege allows me to figure out the world myself without the dogmatic chains of those who pretend to be the “adults in the room”. We must keep in mind that doing science is not the same as talking about science. Many of the bloggers and science popularizers who push back against this innovative research did not write a single scientific paper over the past decade. The situation is akin to commentators telling the players in a soccer field how to pass the ball. Some of them call themselves “astrophysicists” even though they are not actually practicing scientific research in astrophysics. I am talking about science while doing the work of science. My latest papers can be accessed <a href="https://arxiv.org/search/advanced?advanced=1&terms-0-operator=AND&terms-0-term=abraham+loeb&terms-0-field=author&classification-physics_archives=all&classification-include_cross_list=include&date-filter_by=all_dates&date-year=&date-from_date=&date-to_date=&date-date_type=submitted_date&abstracts=show&size=50&order=-announced_date_first" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>. There is a big distinction that comes with practicing what you preach. We must let evidence guide us to new knowledge about our cosmic neighbors, and not be trapped by our opinions. And if we fail to find the evidence for many decades after investing billions of dollars in the search, we will be exactly at the same point as dark-matter searches are right now. Despite their lack of success, these past dark-matter searches are legitimized within the mainstream of physics, even though they have much less resonance with the interests of the public than the search for extraterrestrial civilizations. <a href="https://avi-loeb.medium.com/practice-what-you-preach-9e20458d39f0">Click Here</a>