Princeton's PEAR lab closing

... Jahn’s general conclusions are that anomalous phenomena are real, can be studied scientifically in large data sets, and could be used in applications. He admitted that some of his faculty colleagues view the research with skepticism, and others have been completely dismissive. But he does not think that the engineering anomalies work affected his reputation as a distinguished researcher in electric and plasma propulsion. Princeton’s Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory, which Jahn started in 1961, remains at the vanguard of the field under the direction of one of Jahn’s former students, Edgar Choueiri *91, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

PEAR will not enjoy the same fate. International Consciousness Research Laboratories, a not-for-profit group associated with PEAR, supported research in recent years, but with no viable long-term successor and most of the lab’s funding evaporating, Jahn has decided to close the lab, with no regrets. “Without a doubt it has been the most personally stimulating and rewarding intellectual activity I’ve ever been involved in,” he said. “I feel very privileged for having been allowed to take a scholarly walk into this extraordinarily strange garden.”

A Princeton Lab on ESP Plans to Close Its Doors

PRINCETON, N.J., Feb. 6 — Over almost three decades, a small laboratory at Princeton University managed to embarrass university administrators, outrage Nobel laureates, entice the support of philanthropists and make headlines around the world with its efforts to prove that thoughts can alter the course of events.

But at the end of the month, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory, or PEAR, will close, not because of controversy but because, its founder says, it is time.

The laboratory has conducted studies on extrasensory perception and telekinesis from its cramped quarters in the basement of the university’s engineering building since 1979. Its equipment is aging, its finances dwindling.

“For 28 years, we’ve done what we wanted to do, and there’s no reason to stay and generate more of the same data,” said the laboratory’s founder, Robert G. Jahn, 76, former dean of Princeton’s engineering school and an emeritus professor. “If people don’t believe us after all the results we’ve produced, then they never will.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/10/sc...in&oref=slogin

The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory will close after 28 years of studying ESP and telekinesis, research that embarrassed university officials and outraged the scientific community.
http://www.physorg.com/news90408273.html

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I dont understand why people would be embarrassed and outraged over this kind of research.
Is it just dogmatism or something else?

Simple. They've had their shot (more than most researchers in this field ever get), and they've gotten next to nothing. Two to three flips in ten thousand trials? You have got to be kidding me. I wonder if they've had a competent statistician vet their data at all.

Enough's enough. If there's a private loon crazy enough to continue funding this sort of thing, then so be it, but now that there isn't, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

So I gather there were no conclusive results from their big bang experiment?

What big bang experiment?

Sorry, I get all that woo-woo stuff at Princeton (PRINCETON???) confused.

Princeton didn't fund any of the research, the money was all private donations.

“It’s been an embarrassment to science, and I think an embarrassment for Princeton,” said Robert L. Park

There is a difference between being open-minded and empty-headed. This woo-woo stuff crosses the line.