re: #221 Jason Munro

Interesting, thanks for sharing this. Interpreting science is messy because humans are messy. I agree. The idea that the scientific method (capital T, S and M, from the video), is incorrect because we are messy humans - I’m not buying that so much. There were interesting points about how societal influences could impact the result of an experiment’s conclusion. But nothing in this interview (for me) supported the idea that the scientific method is flawed.

The concept of falsifiability (sp?) is neat. Disproving a hypothesis is sometimes as valuable as proving one.

There’s a famous null result from physics that is a good example: the Michelson-Morley experiment of 1887. Michelson and Morley were convinced that the speed of light as measured from the moving Earth would be different depending on the relative direction of the light beam to the Earth’s orbital motion. They designed an ingenious apparatus to measure minute differences in the speed of light (the interferometer), and after many attempts found NO differences at all. Big puzzler.

Then Einstein in 1905 publishes his first relativity paper, which in part says, “Oh the speed of light is invariant. Everybody no matter how fast they are moving — or in what direction — will measure the same speed of light.” So, the M-M experiment verified Einstein’s postulate years before Einstein published it!

Interestingly, Einstein claimed he was not aware of the Michelson-Morley experiment before he published in 1905. It was only after that colleagues told him about it.