The writer’s most recent book is ‘How to Grow a Human’
Whatever else finally emerges from the excitement that particle physicists may have discovered a new secret of the universe, one thing for sure is that the process shows science working at its best. Political ideologues may like to claim vindication for a cherished idea. But scientists can be filled with delight when their theories don’t work.
The hubbub follows an experiment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois, which produced a result that may be different from what theory predicts. Out of such discrepancies, scientific knowledge is discovered, even if the discrepancy is tiny — in this case, at the ninth decimal place. That is akin to your prediction of the distance from St Paul’s Cathedral to the Statue of Liberty being out by a few millimetres. That this difference is considered significant is testament to the predictive accuracy of current theory and scientists’ refusal to settle for “near enough correct”.