Examines the processes involved in the birth and development of new scientific ideas. The author has searched for strategies used by scientists for producing new theories, both those that yield a range of plausible hypotheses and ones that aid in narrowing that range.

How does science work? Does it tell us what the world is “really” like? What makes it different from other ways of understanding the universe? In Theory and Reality, Peter Godfrey-Smith addresses these questions by taking the reader on a grand tour of more than a hundred years of debate about science. The result is a completely accessible introduction to the main themes of the philosophy of science. Examples and asides engage the beginning student, a glossary of terms explains key concepts, and suggestions for further reading are included at the end of each chapter. Like no other text in this field, Theory and Reality combines a survey of recent history of the philosophy of science with current key debates that any beginning scholar or critical reader can follow. The second edition is thoroughly updated and expanded by the author with a new chapter on truth, simplicity, and models in science.

String theory has played a highly influential role in theoretical physics for nearly three decades and has substantially altered our view of the elementary building principles of the Universe. However, the theory remains empirically unconfirmed, and is expected to remain so for the foreseeable future. So why do string theorists have such a strong belief in their theory? This book explores this question, offering a novel insight into the nature of theory assessment itself. Dawid approaches the topic from a unique position, having extensive experience in both philosophy and high-energy physics. He argues that string theory is just the most conspicuous example of a number of theories in high-energy physics where non-empirical theory assessment has an important part to play. Aimed at physicists and philosophers of science, the book does not use mathematical formalism and explains most technical terms.

Originally published in 1971. The three contributions collected in this volume deal with different aspects of a single theme—the logical status of scientific theories in their relation to observation. These lectures, authored by different thinkers, treat this theme in connection with some controversies in the philosophy of science. A nonspecialist who reads these lectures should realize that the theme itself is a perennial one with an ancient lineage. It has concerned philosophers from the earliest era of philosophy on down through the centuries. A central philosophical issue at stake in the lectures is the question of whether scientific theories are testable in terms of our observations such that we can know whether some theories are true and others false. Although differing in their emphases, all three contributors seek a more plausible and nonskeptical philosophical account of the status of scientific theories in relation to observation.

Although Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper debated the nature of science only once, the legacy of this encounter has dominated intellectual and public discussions on the topic ever since. Kuhn's relativistic vision of science as just another human activity, like art or philosophy, triumphed over Popper's more positivistic belief in revolutionary discoveries and the superiority of scientific provability. Steve Fuller argues that not only has Kuhn's dominance had an adverse impact on the field but both thinkers have been radically misinterpreted in the process.

This challenging and innovative book examines the processes involved in the birth and development of new scientific ideas. The author has searched for strategies used by scientists for producing new theories, both those that yield a range of plausible hypotheses and ones that aid in narrowing that range. She goes on to focus on the development of the theory of the gene as a case study in scientific creativity. Her discussion of modern genetics greatly demystifies the philosophy of science, and establishes a realistic framework for understanding how scientists actually go about their work. This compelling work will interest a broad range of readers, including biologists and geneticists, along with historians and philosophers of science.

One of the pathways by which the scientific community confirms the validity of a new scientific discovery is by repeating the research that produced it. When a scientific effort fails to independently confirm the computations or results of a previous study, some fear that it may be a symptom of a lack of rigor in science, while others argue that such an observed inconsistency can be an important precursor to new discovery. Concerns about reproducibility and replicability have been expressed in both scientific and popular media. As these concerns came to light, Congress requested that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conduct a study to assess the extent of issues related to reproducibility and replicability and to offer recommendations for improving rigor and transparency in scientific research. Reproducibility and Replicability in Science defines reproducibility and replicability and examines the factors that may lead to non-reproducibility and non-replicability in research. Unlike the typical expectation of reproducibility between two computations, expectations about replicability are more nuanced, and in some cases a lack of replicability can aid the process of scientific discovery. This report provides recommendations to researchers, academic institutions, journals, and funders on steps they can take to improve reproducibility and replicability in science.

Koslowski boldly criticizes many of the currently classic studies and musters a compelling set of arguments, backed by an exhaustive set of experiments carried out during the last decade.

This book is based on a nuclear physics course the author has taught to graduate students at the Physics Department, College of Science, University of Baghdad, Iraq, for the period 19782007. Also, it is based on the authors experiences in the field of nuclear physics, teaching, researching, and administration of certain scientific institutions and organizations. It consists of nine chapters and an appendix of some solved problems to illustrate the subject to the students. As a textbook in nuclear physics, it actually deals with the physics of the nucleus of the atom, from the time of discovering the nucleus by the alpha particle (a) scattering by gold film experiment by Rutherford (1911). Therefore, it describes and demonstrates the following important subjects: Nuclear radius and shapes, properties The nuclear force, properties, and features Proposed nuclear models Nuclear potential, different suggested types Nuclear constituents, the protons (p) and the neutrons (N) The nucleon as identity to p and N according to the charge and energy state The angular momentum of the nucleus and its quadruple moment The nuclear interactions The rotation properties of the nucleus The electromagnetic properties of the nucleus Transitions, properties, and Fermi golden rules Beta decay and the nonconservation of parity and the CPT conservation, the helicity Nuclear particles physics Solved problems