A new scientific idea usually has a hard time finding its way. At first, it is dismissed by everyone. Venerable authorities say it's nonsense. After a while, the first doubts appear, and some people allow themselves to say that there may be some truth in it. A few years later, everyone said the idea was so obvious that everyone knew about it, and any student could have said it. I was told about this somewhat amusing evolution of human attitudes toward the new мany years ago by my then-supervisor, Isaac Bersuker, a prominent Moldovan scientist. However, at that time, I only guessed about [...]
