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by pfdietz 400 days ago
> I haven’t heard about many attempts to disprove established physics.

Every experiment that tests the standard model is an attempt to disprove established physics. There is no great expectation these attempts will succeed, but it only takes on ugly experiment to kill a beautiful theory.

1 comments

People frequently misunderstand what motivates physicists. They aren't tiptoeing around orthodox theory like it's a precious house of cards that they're desperately afraid will fall apart. At every opportunity, they take sledgehammers to it. It's every physicist's dream to invalidate accepted theory. The more fundamental and important it is, the more work it creates for other physicists, the better.

Because it's so hard and rare, physicists are often quite skeptical of claims that cards have been sent tumbling. This skepticism has delayed progress at times.

This is a very idealized view. Whole careers and schools have been built around disproven models, yet they linger for the grants still flow and they please sone sense of beauty and symmetry .
None of that contradicts what he wrote.