I'm not saying that the sciences are not political, its just that you have to do decades of work before you can even begin to criticize your rivals. Even then, you are trying to convince smart peers in writing. In programming, the thinking on the street is that the younger, less educated, and less experienced you are, the more awesome you are.
You should read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Shechtman#Work_on_quasicrys...