How do we distinguish between the legitimate skepticism of those who scoffed at cold fusion, and the stifling dogma of the seventeenthcentury clergymen who, doubting Galileo's claim that the earth was not the center of the solar system, put him under house arrest for the last eight years of his life? In part, the answer lies in the distinction between skepticism and closed-mindedness. Many scientists who were skeptical about cold fusion nevertheless tried to replicate the reported phenomenon in their own labs; Galileo's critics refused to look at the pertinent data. Thomas Gilovich
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When we hear about new scientific discoveries, we should always be skeptical. However, we should always focus only on the facts and not on the person who claims to have discovered them. It is not our job to determine if a discovery is genuine or not; that is up to the experts. If we do not look at the facts and consider all aspects of a discovery, then we can quickly be shut down by those who are trying to manipulate facts and present it as their own.

Source: How We Know What Isnt So: The Fallibility Of Human Reason In Everyday Life

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