Scientists' prejudices dismay Harvard astrophysicist

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb expresses dismay at the unwillingness of many fellow scientists to even look at his evidence for the existence of aliens in space. He told the UK newspaper The Observer that when he published papers presenting the reasons for his theory the science community showed little curiosity and in many cases mocked him at once for a stance that was considered outside the boundary of serious science. 

In Professor Loeb’s just published book Extraterrestrial, as The Observer’s account relates, he found that his theory...

“put me at odds with most of the scientific establishment”, even though, as a tenured Harvard professor on various academic boards, he worked at the core of it. […] Colleagues turned their noses up. Some thought it was ridiculous, others damaging to the community. Whenever he shared his theory, “Ninety-nine per cent of the time, I’d get this silence,” he says. On Twitter, one scientist described the hypothesis as insulting. Another said: “Next time there’s another unusual object, let’s not tell Avi!” – a petty swipe, Loeb’s theory reduced to a punchline. 

“That made me upset,” he says. “It’s like kindergarten. Let’s just talk about the science!” The reactions still bother him. “If someone comes to me and says, ‘For these scientific reasons, I have a scenario that makes much more sense than yours,’ then I’d rip that paper up and accept it,” he says. “But most of the people who attacked, they hadn’t even looked at my paper, or read the issues, or referred to the items we discussed.” 

Professor Loeb’s experience is of importance to everyone, inside and outside the field of direct scientific investigation. The consequences for us all as to any neglect of vigorous investigation into reality and truth could be severe, both materially and in understanding our human situation.

Professor Loeb

In some ways, Loeb sees the argument around ‘Oumuamua [an interstellar asteroid Loeb had been studying] as a proxy for a larger debate about the scientific process. Of his colleagues, he thinks: where are the progressive, exciting ideas? Where are the scientists making bold hypotheses without worrying they might damage their careers? He is convinced conservatism is ruining science, to the point where a hypothesis can now be dismissed outright just because it seems silly or outlandish or unfashionable, even when it is as theoretically plausible as any other theory available. Of ‘Oumuamua, he says: “The only reason I was courageous enough to come out was because people privately told me, ‘Yes, this object is something quite unusual.’ They say it privately because they’re afraid to make a public statement. But I’m not afraid. What should I be afraid of?”

Professor Loeb blames the antagonism on “conservatism”. But this is not a political or religious conservatism as in the American context, but the ingrained filter that affects a person over what is regarded in their society or community of what is “silly”, “outlandish” or “unfashionable”. “There is a taboo on the subject,” Professor Loeb says.

Once, Loeb went to a seminar on ‘Oumuamua at Harvard. As he left, he got chatting to an astronomer who’d spent his entire career studying objects in the solar system. “He tells me: ‘This object looks so weird, I wish it never existed,’” Loeb recalls, disapprovingly. To him the comment was scandalous. “As scientists we should accept, with pleasure, whatever nature gives us. Science is a dialogue with nature, it’s not a monologue. And what people don’t realise is, nature isn’t supposed to make us happy, or satisfied, or proud of ourselves. Nature is whatever it is.”

He goes on, “I find those instances when the data gives us some uneasiness, when the evidence doesn’t line up with what we expect, I feel these are the most exciting moments. Nature is telling you, ‘Your thinking on this is wrong.’ That’s what I’m here for, to learn something new. I’m not in it to feel good about myself, to get likes on Twitter, for the prizes. I’m in it to understand. So a colleague telling me, ‘I wish it never…’” He shakes his head. 

The filters or barriers to being open to what is socially acceptable, also slam into place because of the “cancel culture”, generated especially by society’s elite of academia, the media and corporate leaders, giving rise to real fear even in these same spheres. 

“You know, I’ve noticed a chilling effect on some people who have worked with me,” he says. “The moment there is backlash from the scientific community, they stop.” I ask why. “Because people at this stage – students and postdocs – they worry about their careers.” Loeb is convinced that, every now and then, a collaborator of his will be told that working with him could damage their hunt for a faculty position, as though it were an ugly blotch on an otherwise stellar CV. “I think that’s the part that is unhealthy here,” he says. “Science is supposed to be without prejudice, open to discussion. Not the bullying.”

All of this dogs Loeb. “My point is, how dare scientists shy away from this question, when they have the technology to address it, and when the public is extremely interested – while at the same time you have theoretical physicists talking about extra dimensions, string theory, about the multiverse? The multiverse is extremely popular in the mainstream. You ask yourself, how can that be part of the conservative mainstream” – but not the search for extraterrestrial life?

In his book, Loeb writes that throughout his career he has worked hard to approach problems with childlike wonder, often in defiance of conventional thinking. “If you speak to friends of mine, people from my childhood, they’ll tell you I haven’t changed much,” he says. “That’s on purpose. You might think of me as naive. But when people say, ‘As you get older, you need to abandon risk taking, become more rigid,’ I don’t accept that!”

Unfortunately, many, many people credit the world of science as being pure, untainted by prejudices, and fully devoted to discovering reality and the truth. From what we can see from Professor Loeb’s experience, scientists are bedevilled by the typical human weaknesses, as well as blindspots typical of their own profession. 

After centuries when the Western world’s top scientists were Christians,  it is sad that these days those who have experienced in their life the spiritual world in any of its many astounding forms are regarded as primitives left behind by the explosion of scientific findings in the last 100 years. But the mind view that is generated by scientism and an atheism that is so much more aggressive than healthy skepticism, is of that same type that gives rise to all that Professor Loeb has encountered. Science is not of benefit to us if it is not open to investigating all that is plausible.