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This is what industry does though. That is in the less theoretical fields. If you actually want to make something that works, then you need to base your science on provable fact. Produce oil, build a cool structure, generate electricity. Based on amazing and complex science, but it has to work. Conclusion is that the science that is done needs to be provable, but that means practical. Which is unfortunate. Because what about all that science that may be, or one day may be, practical?


The trouble is, industrial researchers usually don't publish negative results or failures to reproduce. So it takes a long time to correct the published scientific record even if privately some people know it's wrong.


Indeed nobody tends to publish negative results or failures to reproduce unless there is already a monetary or social bounty on the question, it seems


This is like the xkcd test for weird science: Is some big boring company making billions with it? If so (quantum physics) then it’s legit. If not (healing crystals, orgone energy, essential oils...) it probably doesn’t work.


>Is some big boring company making billions with it? If so (quantum physics) then it’s legit. If not (healing crystals, orgone energy, essential oils...) it probably doesn’t work.

That's no guarantee; in 2020 the US essential oils industry was worth $18.62 billion: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/essentia... . Which is bigger than the US music recording industry (https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/the-us-recorded-music...).




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