It's funny to look at history and see how often, and severely, ideology got in the way of scientific discovery.

Theories of gravity, evolution, planetary motion, the spherical earth, even flight, all had to overcome ridicule and disdain, blockades not always limited to theistic beliefs.

It's so nice that now we look at science empirically. Sure, religion and morality often dictates what we should or shouldn't do (cloning, for example), but it doesn't stop new ideas from being pursued; ideas that might fly in the face of conventional scientific beliefs. Right?

Wrong.

It seems that after the Pons and Fleishman Cold Fusion debacle of 1989, researchers exploring tabletop fusion are cast into a corner smaller and darker than the one where SETI researchers cower.

Researchers exploring a new method of tabletop fusion, putting their paper through standard peer-review channels, have nevertheless been badgered at every stage, ridiculed, dismissed, and blocked wherever possible from presenting their findings.

Their paper, finally published in the peer-reviewed Science journal, almost never saw the light of day, blocked by those who believe that the concept is folly (or is already being utilized in government labs). It's a very interesting look into the 'once burned, twice shy' atmosphere of the scientific community.