Daily Torch: In 1963, Karl Popper proposed that the central criterion of the scientific method should be its testability, or the ability to falsify a theory. Absent that, he wrote that such a theory could not be considered scientific.
Popper wrote, “A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific,” adding, “Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as people often think) but a vice.”
Although controversial, in science, the whole premise of peer review is encapsulated by Popper’s central theme, which is that science as a practice should be transparent. The evidence backing up a scientific theory should be reproducible. Popper wrote, “Every genuine test of a theory is an attempt to falsify it, or to refute it. Testability is falsifiability; but there are degrees of testability: some theories are more testable, more exposed to refutation, than others; they take, as it were, greater risks.”
But many scientific theories, although subjected to peer review, are often not subjected to public review, particularly when it comes to government agencies that rely on published science to enact regulations. While some agencies do require publication of underlying data to support regulations — the National Institutes for Health stands out — there is by no means a legal requirement that they do so, either for issuing regulations or receiving government grants.
That could change, however, with legislation by outgoing U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), H.R. 1430, the Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act of 2017 (HONEST) Act that would, according to the bill’s description, “prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from proposing, finalizing, or disseminating a covered action unless all scientific and technical information relied on to support such action is the best available science, specifically identified, and publicly available in a manner sufficient for independent analysis and substantial reproduction of research results…”
The bill passed the House in March 2017 but so far almost no action has been taken in the Senate, and with the incoming Democratic House majority that most certainly will not pass it again, the current Senate lame duck session could be the last chance for Smith’s bill to be enacted.
But the Trump administration is not sitting around waiting for Congress to act. In April, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new rule, “Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science,” which would simply require that “for the science pivotal to its significant regulatory actions, EPA will ensure that the data and models underlying the science is publicly available in a manner sufficient for validation and analysis.” MORE HERE
And when you’re done checking the depts. out, shut them down. Thanks.
There is much research in computational quantum mechanics, mathematical physics, atmospheric physics, hypersonic aerodynamics, theory of materials, chemistry, etc. Whereas much of that research might not lead to “theories” in the testable sense, it does often either lead to practical engineering developments and/or the works are often critical years later after fundamental discoveries. The same is true in mathematics. I am constantly shocked at just how much mathematics has grown since I was in school! I need to go back – if someone can figure out how to reverse time.
If the big Popper wuz alive today he’d probably say: Hellzapoppin’!
(either that or “oh baby that’s what I like!”)