How Physicists Evaluate Scientific Claims

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Nature of Science

Ed Hessler

The most recent on-line issue of Symmetry has an article on how physicists evaluate scientific claims.

There are six listed below with the details describing each one requiring only a click of your mouse. And worth reading.

1. Where did the data come from?

2. How was the data collected and handled?

3. How exceptional is the data?

4. Are the results statistically significant?

5. How significant is the significance?

6. Were the results confirmed by an independent experiment?

You will notice throughout the relentless probing of the data, confirmation/disconfirmation by other scientists (independent confirmation) and the questioning of evidence, how well the results fit current theory.