Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 34 (4):661-691 (2003)
| Abstract |
Scientists are always doing experiments or making observations that disappoint them. Most negative experiments are consigned to the file drawer. But in physics, lead is regularly transmuted into gold by treating a negative result as an upper limit—an observation of the maximum strength of the phenomenon under investigation. The logic and sociology of upper limits and the logic and sociology of positive results are different. I explore the difference through a case study in the physical sciences. In the conclusion I ask why social sciences only rarely translate their negative findings into successes.Author Keywords: Physics; Gravitational Waves; Negative Results; Upper Limits; Audiences for Science
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| DOI | 10.1016/j.shpsa.2003.09.002 |
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References found in this work BETA
Stages in the Empirical Programme of Relativism.Harry M. Collins - 1981 - Social Studies of Science 11:3-10.
Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science From Non-Science: Strains and Interests in Professional Ideologies of Scientists.Thomas F. Gieryn - 1983 - American Sociological Review 48 (6):781-795.
The Politics of Observation: Cerebral Anatomy and Social Interests in the Edinburgh Phrenology Disputes.Steven Shapin - 1979 - In Roy Wallis (ed.), On the Margins of Science: The Social Construction of Rejected Knowledge. University of Keele. pp. 27--139.
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Citations of this work BETA
Risk Assessment of Emerging Technologies and Post-Normal Science.Karen Kastenhofer - 2011 - Science, Technology, and Human Values 36 (3):307-333.
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