[SideQuark]

> What would you do?

The scientist calling bullshit that can back it up gets in history books. The others eventually lost credibility.

So I (and pretty much all scientists I'e ever worked with) would call it a failure.

By your implication, nuclear fusion researchers would have "found" it decades ago. But since reality wins in the end, and scientists are generally not pathological liars, they did not. They continue to advance the field.

There's ample other cases demonstrating the flaws in your story. Bad scientists don't tend to last long under the gaze of reality.