Reply To: T-shirt designers unite and take over

[Brian H]

Phil’s Dad wrote:

Theories are only true until something comes along to disprove them.

So all you need to do is come along with a repeatable test that shows the conservation thing to be wrong.

Until then…
Exactly. I’m a Popper-ian as far as Philosophy of Science goes: there are no proven ‘laws’, only hypotheses and theories which have withstood intensive and competent attempts to disprove them. In fact, no hypothesis actually qualifies as science unless it comes with plausible tests which might falsify it. This is known as “Falsifiablility”; string theory apparently lacks it, e.g., so is not considered more than a mathematical exercise by many in the field. Atmospheric Greenhouse Warming Theory resists suggesting or conducting such tests tooth and nail, and is hence actually anti-scientific. Etc.

Real physicists LOVE life-or-death testing. Most hope, e.g., the LHC runs disprove the Standard Model, because that will be so much more interesting and informative.