At some point, the accumulating anomalies prove too great, too troublesome, or too numerous to ignore. In the terminology of science historian Thomas Kuhn, the reigning theory forms a self-reinforcing mindset called a paradigm that dictates what is fact and what is mere noise. From within the paradigm, anomalies are trivia, curiosities, illusions, or bad data. Research proposals endorsing the paradigm win grants, lab space, and degrees. One example is the ignored work of scientists dabbling in ideas that contradict neodarwinian dogma.
Progress is an acknowledgment of the opposition.
The new ideas reign, at least for a while, until they too become ossified and insensitive to the squawks of new anomalies, and are eventually overthrown themselves. Kuhn's model of paradigm shift in science is so convincing that it has become a paradigm itself-the paradigms of paradigms. We now see paradigms and paradigm overthrows everywhere, inside of science and out. Paradigm shifts are our paradigm. The fact that things don't really work that way is, well, an anomaly.