And that is exactly what happened. Furthermore, most of the meteorite was vaporized by the impact, leaving few traces. It had been a mistake to think that the impact would leave a lot of buried iron. Science is sometimes slow, but it always involves making educated guesses that eventually lead to testable predictions. If the predictions turn out to be incorrect, the test is still successful if scientists learn enough to modify the theory, find a better one, or discover mistaken assumptions.
Science is now under attack from many directions.
On the left are those who twist legitimate multiculturalism by going way beyond it. Such thinking has encouraged belief in pseudoscientific and unscientific ideas ranging from crystal healing in Taos to flying saucers in Roswell. Even worse, it has turned some women and minorities away from careers in science, to their detriment and to that of society. Science is also under attack from the religious right, whose literal interpretation of the Bible supersedes scientific evidence, logical reasoning, and common sense. To fundamentalists, any fact that is at odds with their beliefs must be ignored.