> but I think that the greater disappointment would come from learning that foundational principles in physics had been overturned, because what it would mean i

> but I think that the greater disappointment would come from learning that foundational principles in physics had been overturned, because what it would mean is that we've all done a really, unacceptably bad job of getting a true version of reality Physicist here: that's not how physics works, at all. We don't even pretend to have a "true" (complete?) model of reality at all. There are many gaps in our knowledge. Unfortunately they are either so small, so large, or so high energy that we can't easily expand across those limits to our knowledge using data gathered from labs here on Earth. But every now and then you get a really simple test that demonstrates a gap in our knowledge that reveals new physics, and that's how we make advances. If the Em drive were real, it would be just like the photoelectric effect or quantum-slit interference patterns: things which defy classical explanations but which are evidently quite real. And I assure you, those were NOT disappointments. Far from it--every physicist dreams of discovering such an experiment, and it would certainly win the Nobel prize.