Incidentally I think there are some really specific reasons why #lk99 is a good science "event" to be playing out in public that don't necessarily map to other things as well. And some of those things have a lot to do with why I'm highlighting what I am in this thread (mostly positive developments).

Specifically, a confluence of the following:
- it is entirely theoretically possible (unlike useful cold fusion which requires new physics)

- it has at least a very small potential to be a transistor-level breakthrough in technology, or at least to lead to one if it pans out, so it is inherently exciting (unlike, say, photovoltaic improvements which are important but incremental).

- positive experimental outcomes are physically observable in the real world by humans using their eyes (unlike anything coming out of particle accelerators, theoretical physics, or astronomy).

- negative experimental outcomes don't really mean all that much, because, at best, they can only really affect the theoretical shape of the thing being observed in positive experiments. So maybe it's not a superconductor: doesn't mean it won't be a massive breakthrough (again, unlike cold fusion where replication was *necessary* to demonstrate effects since those effects were subtle, and it never materialized, and even the effects observed were dubious and of low value).

- the fact that the paper was released early creates a lot of intrigue and the fact that the early preprint included (bad) instructions for reproduction allowed for people all over the world to try it themselves, which probably wouldn't have been the case if it had followed the plan the inventors were trying to follow (where instructions would have maybe never come out except in obfuscated patents, and certainly not before they could establish a royalty regime on it).

- while faking results is pretty easy, we've probably passed the point of that being likely from the original team and Internet trolls are, frankly, pretty lazy and tend to make the same kinds of fakes over and over again. They go much bigger than they ought to because fooling someone with something subtle is just.. not as fun. I could write a whole post about this one thing tbh, but maybe another time.

Basically it's a perfect storm of conditions for a real time science in the open bonanza. That this is unusual is also a really good demonstration of how stifled science and engineering have become in terms of their relationships to the public and even related fields.

But everything isn't like this. It's just proof that you can't really just adopt extreme skepticism as a blanket policy to all scientific advance. Sometimes things actually happen.

Frankly, it seems like material sciences have been going through a bit of a revolution lately and a *lot* of other kinds of scientific progress has been held back waiting for this. So whatever happens with this I think we're in for a bit of a ride.