Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
Theories are a dime a dozen in this business. As far as I know none
of them makes useful predictions -- or even testable predictions! . . .
If I recall correctly, Hagelstein's theory based on phonon coupling
to the lattice made testable predictions. However, that was a
number of years ago, and since the theory seems to have sunk without
a trace, I'd have to guess that it was, indeed, "falsified", so to speak.
You are probably right. I spoke rather harshly. To be honest, I can
seldom follow lectures about theory long enough to see if they make
predictions. However:
1. At conferences I sometimes follow Ed Storms around as he asks the
theorists, "Okay, so what testable predictions do you make? How can I
use this theory to improve my experiments?" They seldom give a
satisfactory answer. Except in one instance, with Hagelstein's theory
about laser stimulation. Hagelstein predicted it would work at
specific wavelengths (with 2 lasers) and by gum, it seems to do that.
So says Cravens.
2. In theory papers I do not recall seeing a section titled
"predictions" or something like that.
- Jed
