Text: When sufficient new information is obtained, it is expected that the researcher(s) will write a paper and submit it for review to fellow scientists working in or educated in a similar specialty. The journal, to whom the paper is submitted for publication, selects the "peers" and submits copies of the paper for review. The names of the peers are not usually made available. Peer comments, if appropriate, may be submitted back to the author(s) and the comments may or may not be used by the editor of the journal in his/her decision to publish or reject the paper. The above "classical procedure" is seldom reality. The most significant scientifc discoveries are often found by accident. Much of scientific progress stems from dedicated persons working in their own small laboratories and not from the laboratories of large industrial or governmental laboratories. Many new scientific findings are discovered by accident and not as a result of the close following of the "scientific method". Many scientists do not follow the peer review procedure, they phone, fax, or visit a friend. They may be reclusive, but most often there is an enormous amunt of information exchanged well before anything gets into print. Pons and Fleischmann had an idea that was so "far fetched" they knew their peers would not accept or support such a fanciful idea. So they used their own funds and Pons garage until they had their first successes. Thereafter, they followed the expected procedure but were flagrantly criticized by many of their "colleagues" - they had very few peers. John O'M. Bockris was a peer, and was one of the first to replicate the Pons-Fleischmann Effect. Nearly all of the important scientific discoveries were [initially] relected or scorned by the "peers." New fundamental discoveries imply modest or drastic changes in science, the rewriting of textbooks, the relearning on the part of teachers and professors, and changes in teaching materials. Very few peers rejoice in having to "start over" in their profession. Many important discoveries are made by experimenters who are not classified as scientists. They may or may not have a college education. They often do not have sufficient math to understand ome of the scientific literature. They may just "try this and see what happens" or they often have a different model of how the world works. Michael Faraday, Thomas Alva Edison and the Wright brothers are good examples. They had no peers because they were working in uncharted new areas of endeavor. Kenneth Shoulders, "the world's greatest inventor," is a member of this group. This is not to say that the scientific method is "bad" or "wrong." Nearly all of the gradual improvements in science are accomplished by hghly trained scientists, using the scientific method, and following the peer-review procedures. These scientists gradually change the world and they do it at an acceptable pace.

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