I hate this Crichton quote so much. It gets thrown around all the time and no one thinks about how demonstrably false it is. Science obviously has plenty to do with consensus.

When an evolutionary scientist publishes a paper, do they have to reference or recapitulate the theory of evolution? No, because that position is scientific consensus. Ditto for the hypothesis that smoking increases cancer risk.

Consensus doesn’t mean “impossible to change”, it just means it is generally agreed upon. If some evidence about smoking and cancer comes out down the line, the consensus can change. It’s still the consensus, though.