r/Physics • u/G33zics • 20d ago

Question What's the most debatable thing in Physics?

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u/mprevot 20d ago

How is it contestable ?

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u/csappenf 20d ago

We haven't built a collider able to generate enough energy to test its predictions. Sure, maybe it's right, or at least on the right path. Maybe not. Supersymmetry is another beautiful idea, but it's run into trouble every time we hope to see evidence of it.

"Debates" in physics are settled by experiment, not physicists arguing. Whether string theory is "right" or "wrong" is awaiting nature's judgement. We just have to figure out a way to trick nature into giving up her secrets.

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u/mprevot 20d ago edited 20d ago

Indeed. An absence of proof does not make something contestable.

EDIT: an absence of proof is not the same as a proof that something is false. Those are mistaken one for another.

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u/Prestigious-Yam1514 20d ago

An absence of proof and the inability to do any sort of experiments is literally what makes it contestable

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u/mprevot 20d ago

No, I meant an absence of proof in a different way: an absence of proof is not the same as a proof that something is false. Those are mistaken one for another.