Actually, the notion of scientific consensus arose many times in physics: the Copernican world view versus the Ptolemaic, gravity, quantum jumps, the statistical interpretation of entropy, the existence of electromagnetic waves, the notion of the atom, 'vortex theory,' the possibility of heavier than air flying machines, problems with the semiclassical theory of the atom, whether general relativity could possibly be right, the Ergodic hypothesis, the EPR 'paradox' -- the action at a distance that tormented Einstein, positivism, whether the Copenhagen interpretation were sufficiently comprehensive/actual described reality, Bells theorem, the validity of Feynman's interpretation of QED, the validity of renormalization, the validity of lattice approaches to QCD, gravitational waves, the existence of blackholes, whether string theory was even scientific, whether quantum computation was possible, whether information really was physical, the arrow of time, the understanding of mass, the 'holographic' principle, etc. etc. etc.<p>Quite a few of these haven't even been resolved!