I love the following quote from the episode. It's by an experimental physicist and Columbia University (now MIT) professor named Janet Conrad who specializes in neutrinos:
"Scientists have searched for so long--my whole scientific career--to find a problem with the Standard Model, and it has been very resilient. And that is why it is so exciting to suddenly come up with this new information that neutrinos have mass, because that doesn't fit within our theory. And so, it's like opening a door, and of course when you open a door, behind that, you find a lot more doors."
To me, this perfectly exemplifies what true science is. Conrad is excited that a longstanding theory has been (partially) proven wrong by real, hard, experimental result. Why? Because it reveals information. It points out new questions that need to be asked (and answered). Real science looks for things that are wrong with the current theory. It expects change, and it does not seek to find "truth" so that the "right answer" can be known once and for all. However, it also does not allow established theories to be toppled by just any old hypothesis.
A lot more doors, indeed.
"Scientists have searched for so long--my whole scientific career--to find a problem with the Standard Model, and it has been very resilient. And that is why it is so exciting to suddenly come up with this new information that neutrinos have mass, because that doesn't fit within our theory. And so, it's like opening a door, and of course when you open a door, behind that, you find a lot more doors."
To me, this perfectly exemplifies what true science is. Conrad is excited that a longstanding theory has been (partially) proven wrong by real, hard, experimental result. Why? Because it reveals information. It points out new questions that need to be asked (and answered). Real science looks for things that are wrong with the current theory. It expects change, and it does not seek to find "truth" so that the "right answer" can be known once and for all. However, it also does not allow established theories to be toppled by just any old hypothesis.
A lot more doors, indeed.
