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Space

Physicists launch fight to make data more important than theory

Enough is enough, say the physicists who have come together to renew respect for experimental evidence and work on alternatives to ever more contrived theory

1 July 2015

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Progress remains a pipe dream (Image: Peter Ginter/Getty)

IT WAS, in many ways, a declaration of war. A group of physicists has launched a rearguard action to restore experimental data to what they see as its rightful place, back on their subject’s throne.

Last week, the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Canada, hosted its inaugural at the same time as , the world’s largest string theory conference, was taking place in Bangalore, India. The timing wasn’t entirely accidental, says Perimeter director . Although string theory attempts to describe the universe in one theoretical framework, it…

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