Case Studies in Experimental Physics: Why Scientists Pursue Investigation (Synthesis Lectures on Engineering, Science, and Technology)

This book addresses the pursuit and further investigation of experimental results by analyzing classic examples from physics. The authors concentrate on the investigation of experimental results by examining case studies from the history of 20^th and 21^st century physics. Discussions on the discovery of parity nonconservation, the rise and fall of the Fifth Force, the search for neutrinoless double β decay, supersymmetry and the expansion of the Standard Model, and measurements of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muons are provided. Experimental results may achieve acceptance to the point that even well known principles, such as conservation of energy and quantization, lose their status as accepted. Such principles and their options are treated on an equal footing as being pursuit worthy even though there is no plausible explanation as to why and how they might have failed.

Ronald Laymon, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at The Ohio State University where he specialized in the history and philosophy of science. He has published widely, was the recipient of multiple National Science Foundation research grants, and was a fellow at the Center for the Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He currently consults for a biotech, intellectual property firm that facilitates the open source creation of therapeutic technologies. Retirement has also made it possible for Laymon to resurrect his interest and earlier work in the history and philosophy of science. He is co-author, with Allan Franklin, of Measuring Nothing, Repeatedly: Null Experiments in Physics (with Allan Franklin), and Once Can Be Enough, Decisive Experiments No Replication Needed (with Allan Franklin).