Once Can Be Enough: Decisive Experiments, No Replication Required

185 Pages·2021·5.132 MB·English

by  Allan Franklin, Ronald Laymon

Allan Franklin
Ronald Laymon
Once Can
Be Enough
Decisive Experiments, No Replication
Required
Once Can Be Enough
Allan Franklin Ronald Laymon
(cid:129)
Once Can Be Enough
Decisive Experiments, No Replication
Required
123
AllanFranklin RonaldLaymon
University of Colorado TheOhio State University
Boulder, CO,USA Columbus, OH,USA
ISBN978-3-030-62564-1 ISBN978-3-030-62565-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62565-8
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Acknowledgements
This book has been a collaboration, so anyone who has helped one of us has, in
fact,helpedbothofus.Withthatinmind,wewouldliketoexpressourgratitudeto
the following people. As always members of the high-energy physics group at the
University of Colorado have been available to answer questions, discuss technical
issues, and have provided important material. They are John Cumalat, Shanta
DeAlwis, Oliver DeWolfe, Bill Ford, Alysia Marino, Keith Ulmer, Steve Wagner,
and Eric Zimmerman. For many years, Cynthia Betts has provided support and
encouragement.
v
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Part I Once Was Enough
2 The Meselson-Stahl Experiment: “the Most Beautiful
Experiment in Biology” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 Contenders for the Mechanism of DNA Replication . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3 Demonstrating the Viability of the Experiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4 The Meselson and Stahl Experiment and Its Result . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.5 Once Was Enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.6 Dealing with Dispersive Replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.7 Summary and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3 The Discovery of the Positron. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2 Anderson’s Positive Electron. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.3 Blackett and Occhialini: Less Precise, but More Showers . . . . . . . 43
3.4 Dirac’s Theory Makes Its First Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.5 Further Experimental Research Using Gamma Ray Radiation . . . . 53
3.6 Summary and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4 The Discovery of the Omega Minus Hyperon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.1 The Eightfold Way. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2 The Omega Minus Hyperon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.3 Summary and Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
vii
viii Contents
5 Once Should Have Been Enough: Gregor Mendel, “Experiments
in Plant Hybridization” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.1 Mendel’s Methodology and Experimental Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.2 The Rediscovery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.3 “Too Good to Be True” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Part II Once Wasn’t Enough, Later It Was
6 Once Came Close to Being Enough: Electron Polarization
and Parity Nonconservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.2 Electron Polarization and the Cox Double Scattering
Experiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.3 The Chase Double Scattering Experiment and the Confrontation
with Mott’s Theory of the Experiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
6.4 The Ten-Year Impasse Between Experiment and Theory . . . . . . . 114
6.5 Transmission Efficiency and the Resolution of the Impasse. . . . . . 116
6.6 Resurrection of the Cox and Chase 90°/270° Anomaly. . . . . . . . . 120
6.7 Summary and Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Appendix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
7 The Discovery of Parity Nonconservation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
7.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
7.2 The Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
7.3 The Sequential Decay p ! l ! e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
7.4 The Historical Judgment: Once Was Enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
7.5 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Part III Once Wasn’t Enough
8 The Search for the Magnetic Monopole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
8.1 Magnetic Monopoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
8.2 Dirac’s Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
8.3 Blas Cabrera and the Saint Valentine’s Day Event . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
8.4 Further Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
8.5 Summary and Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
9 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
9.1 Starting Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
9.2 Interaction of Theory and Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
9.3 Experiments as Complex Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Contents ix
9.4 What Constitutes the Result of an Experiment? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
9.5 Once Was Enough, but for What Purpose? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
9.6 Concluding Remarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
About the Authors
Allan Franklin is Professor of physics emeritus at
the University of Colorado. He began his career as
an experimental high-energy physicist and later
changed his research area to history and philosophy
ofscience,particularlyontherolesofexperiment.In
2016, Franklin received the Abraham Pais Prize for
History of Physics from the American Physical
Society. He is the author of eleven books including
most recently Shifting Standards: Experiments in
Particle Physics in the Twentieth Century, What
Makes a Good Experiment?: Reasons and Roles in
Science, and Is It the Same Result? Replication in
Physics. He is co-author, with Ronald Laymon, of
Measuring Nothing, Repeatedly: Null Experiments
in Physics.
Ronald Laymon is Professor of philosophy
emeritus 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
Foundationresearchgrants,andwasafellow
attheCenterforthePhilosophyofScienceat
the University of Pittsburgh, and a resident
scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation’s villa
inBellagio.In1995,hetookadvantageofan
early retirement option and completed a law
degreeattheUniversityofChicagoSchoolof
Law in 1997. He then went on to practice
large-scale commercial litigation at the Jones
Day law firm where he had the good fortune
xi
xii AbouttheAuthors
to serve as second chair on a case before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Nowretiredfromthefull-timepracticeoflaw,Laymondoesconsultingworkfora
biotech, intellectual property firm that facilitates the open-source creation of thera-
peutic 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.