Question

I am interested in examples of crackpots coming up with correct results in physics.

Why do mainstream physicists look down so much upon "crackpots"?

Answer 1

I think there is a genre of physicists writing on the internet, where good manners mean not using four letter words, who use the term "crackpot" to describe physicists who disagree with their beliefs about physics current orthodoxy. It is as if a consensus model of physics is sought rather than an exploration of truth.

Why do mainstream physicists look down so much upon "crackpots"

There exist true crackpots in physics, people who think they have proven Einstein wrong with two lines of incoherence, people who have found a perpetual motion machine etc. They are like all those Napoleons in the asylums, just not so deep in the delusion. It is easy to look down upon such claims.

It becomes more difficult if the candidate for crack pottery is well versed in mathematics, because they develop convoluted mathematical arguments that one has to spend time with to really dismiss. That is why in physics candidates for the crackpot label are theoreticians. I would draw the line there.

To call crackpots people seeking alternative quantum field theories for gravity, or different ways of describing quantum mechanics, is abuse of the concept. It displays the herd mentality, of which mammals partake and physicists are mammals.

Progress in physics happens at the fringes . If the researchers are well versed, sincere and hard working they should be allowed to develop their theories on equal footing with mainstream science, to be tested and rejected if necessary by experiments. Otherwise physics will become fossilized.