[GrumpySimon]

I think this is an artefact of how science is taught: In 1953 Watson and Crick published a paper on the structure of DNA. Everyone smiled and nodded.

In my experience it's more like: Most scientists ignored it. Others were interested but had too much teaching to pay attention to it. A few people got pissed off and tried to prove it wrong. A few other people got excited and tried to build on it.