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Letter: Debating the laws of nature (3)

Published 3 June 2026

From Nick Canning, Coleraine, Londonderry, UK

The notion that the “laws of nature”, the term we use to give natural explanations rather than supernatural ones, may not have always existed, while intriguing, is also corrosive to rational thought, for without stable natural laws, the very notion of a natural explanation of phenomena loses all meaning. Such metaphysical conjectures are in danger of abandoning the realms of refutable hypotheses and testable deductions that Karl Popper placed at the heart of the scientific endeavour.

Issue no. 3598 published 6 June 2026

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