[bpodgursky]

It's really unhealthy to call anything that doesn't fit into the known laws of physics or science "snake oil"

If the EmDrive team was trying to sell NFTs and sucker people into investing in their radical invention it would be snake oil. But instead they approached this very responsibly, saying "we don't understand why this works. help us figure it out."

That's science done right, and a lot of new science has moved forward by questioning and changing the known rules. Whether or not it happens here.

[jasonwatkinspdx]

You're apparently missing the origins of this whole thing. Shawyer has been soliciting investment for it since 2001, making very hyperbolic claims.

This was indeed snake oil from very the start. A couple of people at NASA EagleWorks got permission to use some of their time and facilities to investigate it as a personal project. They did an extremely lazy attempt to control for errors, published their result without review, and the hype exploded.

The whole saga is rather frustrating tbh. We knew what the definitive result was going to be 4 years ago. Getting some improved measurement technology is cool and all, but I don't think we had to go about it this way.

[deepspace]

I disagree. Something new that challenges areas of physics where our understanding is vague, like neutrino mass or dark matter - sure: feel free to explore new theories

Something that challenges something as solidly established as conservation of momentum: Snake oil.

[ckozlowski]

Newtonian motion was pretty well established for hundreds of years until general relativity transformed our understanding of gravity.

Things seem "established" until evidence comes along indicating it may not be. It doesn't always result in a reevaluation, but there's times it does.

This feels like one of those times where there's those in the establishment are yelling at others that their studies are a waste of time and that they shouldn't bother....and if that advice was followed, we'd be missing many of the breakthroughs in knowledge we have today. Of course there will be many times they're unsuccessful. That's why accepting a negative result is a lauded part of the scientific process. Without the bravery required in challenging convention, we would never make progress.

[bpodgursky]

I don't get why you are fixated on that term. They're literally not selling anything.

The whole point of the term "snake oil salesman" is that someone is getting defrauded, and a dishonest person is making a quick buck.