A science writer explains what makes honest researchers cling to ridiculous ideas like N-rays, homeopathy and cold fusion. Sometimes it doesn't. What they don't say is that science needs to be self-correcting because of scientists themselves. Like people in other professions, scientists can be susceptible to self-deception, conceit, wishful thinking, ideological coercion and fraud.
Scientific fraud is an interesting phenomenon in itself.
Books have been written about several famous cases, and more will surely follow. In October, for example, a Japanese archaeologist admitted to planting artifacts at a dig site so he could claim to have discovered the oldest tools in Japan. No Indiana Jones, he was caught on videotape. But Gratzer is interested in the unintentional deceptions that creep into science, and the political and psychological necessities that compel some scientists to cling to false beliefs in the face of common sense and scientific evidence to the contrary. Scientists first have to mislead themselves before they can mislead others.