When I was doing my physics masters (at a pretty good school ie had a couple of nobel prize winners) there was at least a handful of students whose phd projects

When I was doing my physics masters (at a pretty good school ie had a couple of nobel prize winners) there was at least a handful of students whose phd projects involved "testing" theories of gravitation and pushing them to their limits. Not quite the same as experimental replication, but along the same lines I'd say.