I am going to nit-pick on Wegener. His theory of continental drift is not plate tectonics, and he was wrong for pretty much all the reasons that other geologists and physicists of the time said he was wrong. Plate tectonics was able to explain Wegener crucial observation of the continents “fitting together” but with a different and plausible mechanism. His observation was an important and theory-driving anomaly. I remember a text book from 1960s examining both the strong evidence for continental matchup and the highly problematic issues with his idea of continent drift. An expanding earth was also postulated which fitted a lot of observation but would imply physical laws changed over long time periods. In short, it is a lot more nuanced. Similarly, Boltzmann’s ideas on atomic theory were widely accepted in chemistry though physics took longer. Again, physics had an alternative hypothesis and it needed an experiment to separate them that didnt happen till after Boltzmann’s death. I think there are similar nuances with Marshall and H Pyroli. The “heroic” lone scientist against the establishment may be an appealing narrative but in terms of how science actually makes progress, I think the nuances in these cases are important and more telling about the process.
I am going to nit-pick on Wegener. His theory of continental drift is not plate tectonics, and he was wrong for pretty much all the reasons that other geologists and physicists of the time said he was wrong. Plate tectonics was able to explain Wegener crucial observation of the continents “fitting together” but with a different and plausible mechanism. His observation was an important and theory-driving anomaly. I remember a text book from 1960s examining both the strong evidence for continental matchup and the highly problematic issues with his idea of continent drift. An expanding earth was also postulated which fitted a lot of observation but would imply physical laws changed over long time periods. In short, it is a lot more nuanced. Similarly, Boltzmann’s ideas on atomic theory were widely accepted in chemistry though physics took longer. Again, physics had an alternative hypothesis and it needed an experiment to separate them that didnt happen till after Boltzmann’s death. I think there are similar nuances with Marshall and H Pyroli. The “heroic” lone scientist against the establishment may be an appealing narrative but in terms of how science actually makes progress, I think the nuances in these cases are important and more telling about the process.