Science progresses when ideas clash, leaving the most successful to survive and move us closer to the truth. In this ideal hypothetico-deductive approach [1], science is dynamic and fluid, with theories constantly tested and replaced. In reality, however, many opposing theories rarely meet. Scientists instead often work in entrenched paradigms or research programs – focused on their own frameworks, language, and methods – which resist direct comparison and evolve incrementally at a generational timescale rather than through confrontations [2,3].
