DIFT Colloquium: 'Gamma-Ray Bursts, Cosmic Rays and the Sociology of Science'

Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) and Cosmic Rays (CRs) are not difficult to comprehend. Quasars and micro-quasars are seen to emit highly relativistic “Cannonballs” (CBs), though the underlying mechanism remains unfathomable. The observation that core-collapse supernovae also emit CBs —plus some trivial relativistic kinematics— provides a successful understanding of GRBs and CRs. The self-defined “official experts” on these fields resist the evidence, in an explicitly inquisitorial way.