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When you're in this game long enough, you realize that the thing you want most is not to be wrong. Experimental physics (and every experimental/field branch of
by ISL 6y ago
When you're in this game long enough, you realize that the thing you want most is not to be wrong. Experimental physics (and every experimental/field branch of science) is a search for what is true.
If the dark matter is axions, that's great. If it isn't, that is okay, too. The key problem is that we don't know what gives rise to the phenomena that have led us to believe that dark matter exists.
The thing we should hope for and aspire to, from every experimental endeavor, is a complete and accurate assessment of uncertainties. A complete assessment is only ever a goal, as the "unknown unknowns" are intrinsically difficult to discover; barring that, one can always list and accurately assess all of the known uncertainties.
It is exciting every time a new or unexpected signal appears in a precision experiment -- perhaps today is the day a great truth is exposed -- but the thing we should always hope for is not an exciting result but, rather, a reliable one.
- tech-historian 6y agoAbsolutely. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago> When you're in this game long enough, you realize that the thing you want most is not to be wrong. I suppose most of us are commenting from the outside perspective, where the thing you want most is a warp drive - so any revolution in understanding of the universe gives hope that we'll be able to do things we now consider impossible.
- 7thaccount 6y agoI think you've nailed it. All we really want is to find out we can do warp drive or build a Stargate. I'm only partly joking.