___ A WORRYING TURN TOWARDS THE UNSCIENTIFIC! . . This year, debates in physics circles took a worrying turn, they write in Nature. Faced with difficulties in applying fundamental theories to the observed Universe, some researchers called for a change in how theoretical physics is done. They began to argue — explicitly — that if a theory is sufficiently elegant and explanatory, it need not be tested experimentally, breaking with centuries of philosophical tradition of defining scientific knowledge as empirical. We disagree. As the philosopher of science Karl Popper argued: a theory must be falsifiable to be scientific. Count me in with the group that believes that science dictates that constructs and theories MUST be testable through experiment. Empirical EVIDENCE, to me, is the gold standard to discerning fantasy and alchemy from the study of reality based on the scientific method. That something seems beautiful in form or idea does not make it a viable scientific reality, only the test to reality can validate imaginings from the nature of nature. Man can imagine many things... not all of them can stand the test of connection to reality. Science started on the basis of empiricism, a connection to observation and experiment is the tool we use to say that we know something about the universe we live in. ___
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 00:28:09 +0000
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