The sodium-potassium pump--the central molecular model of the generally accepted membrane pump theory (MPT)--is a misconception, according to the alternative association-induction hypothesis (AIH) of Gilbert Ling. With a discreet fraud coupled with the practice of appraising scientific publications and grant proposals by the peer-review system, the academic establishment--inadvertently or not--hinders a general discussion and acceptance of decisive arguments of the AIH. As a result, important discoveries over many decades, as well as new ways of basic research promising success remain largely unknown. The habit of funding safe research on ideas that have a false premise persists, and the wrong theory gets ever deeper entrenched. Science suffers.