Wasn't the whole thing about the scientists in the Three Body Problem that they recognised that their work was being sabotaged by something enormously more powerful?
No. The scientists do not figure out that things are being meddled with until much later. The scientist suicides, especially the daughter of the woman who invites the aliens, committed suicide because everything they knew about physics had been "proven incorrect". It was all a lie, but they didn't know that.
Actually, I think your take would have made more sense. It never sat well with me that scientists would resort to suicide because they found something they could not explain...yet.
Maybe that's why I misremembered it. I agree, it does seem like the exact opposite to what scientists actually do upon finding something they can't explain