debunking science

What is it about science that has allowed our knowledge to advance so rapidly? And why wasn’t science invented long before that pivotal figure, Issac Newton? These are some of the questions that Michael Strevens, a professor of the philosophy of science, attempts to answer in a book called The Knowledge Machine. 
What's more effective when it comes to debunking science? Turns out that ad hominem attacks work as well as disproving the "facts" of a given argument.