Finding new particles and studying astronomical events has a larger nugget of similarity with the psychology modus operandi than you may think. They’re studying rare or unique objects with extremely finicky measurement tools; enormous amounts of noise are statistically treated to extract a signal. Victor Ninov claimed to have discovered new elements, causing years of disappointing failures to replicate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Ninov). Even if the actual scientists learn their lesson, with some regularity popular science media announce that “the Standard Model just got overturned” or that this or that new quark was discovered.
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