Item: Nineteenth century physicist William Crookes, later knighted for his contributions to science, conducts a series of seances with the young medium Florence Cook and declares her to be genuine. Crookes' detractors not only allege that he has taken leave of his senses, they insinuate that he is having an illicit affair with Florence. Though there is no evidence to support these claims, they continue to this day. Crookes saves his reputation only by retreating from the study of the paranormal.

Item: Richard Sternberg, editor of a small publication associated with the Smithsonian Institute, agrees to publish a peer-reviewed article by Stephen Meyer, an advocate of Intelligent Design. He thinks "that by putting this on the table, there could be some reasoned discourse." Instead, his "colleagues and supervisors at the Smithsonian" are enraged. They take away Sternberg's master key, ostracize and harass him at work, and spread rumors that that the article was not peer reviewed and that Sternberg is not a scientist. (These rumors are false.) An official review of the matter discloses that "officials at the Smithsonian worked with the National Center for Science Education -- a group that opposes intelligent design -- and outlined 'a strategy to have [Sternberg] investigated and discredited.' "

Item: After the publishing house Macmillan announces acquisition of Immanuel Velikovsky's book Worlds in Collision, which makes unorthodox claims about the origins and history of the solar system, famed astronomer Harlow Shapley lobbies the publisher to prevent the book's publication. He fails. According to philosopher David Stove, Shapley then arranges for "denunciations of the book, still before its appearance, by an astronomer, a geologist, and an archaeologist," none of whom have read it. Other reviews by "professors who boasted of never having read the book" follow, and Velikovsky is "rigorously excluded from access to learned journals for his replies." The anti-Velikovsky forces then compel the firing of the long-time Macmillan senior editor who bought the book, even though it has become a bestseller. They also get the Hayden Planetarium's director fired "because he proposed to take Velikovsky seriously enough to mount a display about the theory." Under intense and continuing pressure, Macmillan eventually transfers the book to rival Doubleday, "which, as it has no textbook division, is not susceptible to professorial blackmail."

Item: Research chemists Fleischman and Pons claim to have discovered cold fusion, a room-temperature nuclear process. They are ridiculed as incompetents, and a research paper put out by MIT savages their work, stating that MIT's physicists have been unable to replicate the pair's results. The prestige of MIT succeeds in destroying the chemists' reputations, and they become objects of public derision. Later experiments, however, indicate that some unknown reaction is indeed taking place. Meanwhile, dissident scientist Eugene Mallove produces evidence that the MIT report was fudged. The MIT researchers actually did detect the anomalous heat reported by Fleischman and Pons, but altered their graphs to conceal this fact.

Item: After Timothy Leary claims that LSD, when used under proper supervision, has mind-expanding properties, he is convicted of marijuana possession and sentenced to thirty years in prison. Though his conviction is eventually overturned by the Supreme Court, Leary is rearrested, this time for possession of two marijuana cigarettes. His sentence is ten years in federal prison. Remarkably, he escapes from prison and goes abroad, only to be recaptured by American agents in Afghanistan. Says Wikipedia, "He was then held on five million dollars bail ($21 mil. in 2006), the highest in U. S. history to that point; President Richard Nixon had earlier labeled him 'the most dangerous man in America.' " Facing an incredible 95 years in prison and housed in solitary confinement, Leary finally agrees to cooperate with authorities in exchange for leniency.

Item: Wilhelm Reich claims to have mastered a new kind of energy called "orgone." The US government finds him guilty of making false claims and sentences him to two years in federal prison. Government agents confiscate his research notes and publications, dumping them wholesale into an incinerator. Reich dies in prison, of heart failure.

Item: In 1981 biologist Rupert Sheldrake publishes his book A New Science of Life. Reviewing the book, Sir John Maddox states, "This infuriating tract... is the best candidate for burning there has been for many years." (Evidently he hasn't heard of Reich, whose works actually were burned.) In a later interview Maddox expands on his opinion: "Sheldrake is putting forward magic instead of science, and that can be condemned in exactly the language that the Pope used to condemn Galileo, and for the same reason. It is heresy."

I'm not endorsing the validity of all the unconventional theories mentioned above. In particular, I think Velikosky and Reich are unlikely to have been correct. All that interests me, in citing these instances (and there are many others that could be added to the list), is this question: What are the powers establishment science is so afraid of? Why would people who are genuinely confident that they have reason on their side resort to character assassination, ostracism, threats, and even police action to enforce their opinions?

In other words, why do the self-styled defenders of reason, science, progress, and civilization so often act like bullies and thugs?