These days there are many people who tell us we should just "trust the science." They insist anyone who suggests there could be systematic bias on a question within the scientific community is just a paranoid conspiracy theorist, and that conventions like peer review and the desirability of making one's mark with an original insight ensure against excessive conformism. But the reality is that collective delusions can occur in spite of their collective non-functionality among scientists just as easily as in any other group.
A good example is obesity research. As demonstrated in the article I'm linking to below, for half a century or more this field has been totally dominated by an "energy balance" explanation for what causes obesity and what can be done about it. This is in spite of the fact that it's been repeatedly observed in various species that some individuals reliably become obese even when they're starving. Saying weight gain equals energy in minus energy out is much like saying the average price is that at which supply equals demand: it's a mere tautology that doesn't actually predict anything. Yet it's been treated as dogma within this community and obstructed the advancement of knowledge that could actually reverse the trend of ever more overweight people.
"How a ‘fatally, tragically flawed’ paradigm has derailed the science of obesity"
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