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"Particle Fever" (on Netflix) featured scientists threatening to quit if the results weren't the ones that they wanted: possibly one of least scientific perspec
by zamalek 10y ago
"Particle Fever" (on Netflix) featured scientists threatening to quit if the results weren't the ones that they wanted: possibly one of least scientific perspectives that I have ever witnessed. Science was supposed to be about the wonder of nature, not about being right. I'm extremely happy that science might start moving in that direction again.
- ethbro 10y agoScience may be about the wonder of nature, but having your career's work (and previously respected theory) disproved probably isn't an easy pill to swallow.
- zamalek 10y agoI can see how it's a hard pill to swallow, I just can't bring myself to sympathize. Of all the ways that the universe can possibly operate, we now know that it could be one less way. A life's work working on an incredibly beautiful theory is something to be proud of. Had less competent work been done, this failure might not have been taken seriously. I would be unbelievably excited about what the future holds. The goals of science cannot hang on how people feel about their careers.
- ethbro 10y agoPrecisely! And I imagine the scientific parts of them do. But as someone with family formerly in university faculty tenure-track (circa-90s), the put-food-on-the-table part of your employment is tied up in politics. Being on the bubble for a tenure position you've worked 6-10 years towards? I would hope the department committee would be proud of my incredibly beautiful but disproved theory...