When we talk about failure in a scientific sense, we don’t necessarily mean it in a negative light. Even the best and most successful scientific theories fail to hold up to experiment at some point. Newtonian gravity’s “failure” to predict the orbit of Uranus led to the discovery of Neptune, while its “failure” to predict the orbit of Mercury gave rise to General Relativity. Similarly, the “failure” of the Michelson-Morley experiment to detect the aether gave way to the Lorentz transformation and, eventually, special relativity. Failure is hardly the right word in its colloquial sense, as these represented huge advances in experimental knowledge, and rigorous tests probing the limits of some of our most cherish theories. The null result of the experiment should in no way color our perception of these tests as a failure; they are simply veils of ignorance being pulled away from the truths of the Universe. From null results to the Multiverse, my commenters sure do ask some tough questions!
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 20:17:24 +0000
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