The opposite is also true. Many things we thought would be possible are either economically or technologically out of our grasp:
- Nitrogen fixation in wheat.
- A computer simulation of the catalyst that fixes Nitrogen in plants.
- Fusion power stations.
- Room temperature super-conductors
Maybe its possible to point to research that is almost there in most of these areas -- just like the 1950s.
So that was one clear scientific reason. But people got the impression that the teams working on it are somehow unreliable, unorganized or keep moving the goal posts and are a butt of jokes.
I think the messaging around it doesn't help. It's the same with batteries or renewable energy as well though.
- Fusion is around the corner, (and this time it is not yet again 30 years) it is just shifting more money into research, I read that globally only 50 bn is invested in fusion, jApple on its own has value of 2250 bn.
...
We've made slow but steady progress on this pretty much since we figured out that man made fusion is possible.