Source: Chris Lee, Ars Technica, November 30, 2009
"As you can see, an explanation for why scientists accept a particular statement can involve a story that spans several hundred years and is almost never simple. You'll notice that the statement "nothing can go faster than the speed of light" fits this description exactly. The establishment of this statement as accepted fact involved at least three disparate fields of physics and relied upon several technical innovations, without which there would have been no experimental evidence to push our understanding forward.
"Changes in theories are never overnight revolutions, nor do theories remain unaltered for long. Instead, acceptance of a theory is a matter of consensus, achieved over many years of work. No matter how ugly a theory, no matter how unpalatable its consequences, experimental and observational evidence is the final arbiter. This, in the end, is why we do experiments."
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