Einstein's Four Norms Of A Scientific Revolution

Although Albert and Christi were wrongly advocating for this discovery, they do have validity in the way they approached this topic to the scientific community. Firstly, Albert’s comment “A groundbreaking discovery is treated as a measurement error simply because scientists are unwilling to question their dogma” is based off of Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions. The current paradigm of this time was that the fastest particle on Earth travels at the speed of light. A paradigm dictates the methods and boundaries regarding what is studied in the scientific community. This proposed discovery defies the established paradigm of Einstein’s theory of relativity and would have lead to backlash according to Kuhn’s six steps of a scientific revolution.
According to incommensurability, two paradigms regarding the same subject cannot exist simultaneously. In Kuhn’s six steps of a scientific revolution, a preceding crisis in the scientific community is an inevitable step in a scientific revolution. Essentially, Albert believed the scientific community was in this stage of crisis. Normal science represents the research that lead to Einstein’s achievement, which is accepted within the scientific community. Normal science for this area was defined by Einstein’s paradigm. Albert believed that the European Organization for Nuclear Research’s discovery was not expected because it exists outside of the paradigm. Einstein’s theory of relativity cannot explain how a particle can travel faster than the speed of life and would have represented an anomaly in the data. An anomaly is a set of phenomenon that the current paradigm (Einstein’s theory) cannot explain. However, since this was simply an experimental error, it does not represent an anomaly. In the hypothetical case that this was not an error, the anomaly would have lead to a crisis. This crisis would cause a scientific revolution, leading to a paradigm shift. Although I understand why Albert and Christi were disappointed when they discovered the error in the measurements of their theory, they also must understand that this is standard for science due to falsifiability.. Christi stood behind the importance of falsifiability when he explained that the “scientific community simply exercised due caution.” Popper established this term falsifiability, which means that all theories have the ability to be proven false through experiment or observation. This term “due caution” implies further tests to the theory, and these tests found an error in the experimental data. The fact that Ereditato was forced to step down, because his colleagues were unhappy with management, proves that science exists as a normative system. Science is not simply a collection of methods, but it is controlled by social norms.
According to Merton, the four norms that control science include universalism, communism, organized skepticism, and disinterestedness. Ereditato violated the norm of organized skepticism because he jumped to the conclusion that he was “confident of the results” before the final data was collected. Ereditato did not wait to share the progress before all of the data was collected and his judgment proved incorrect. Since the physicists working on CERN shared their work with the scientific community, they followed the norm of communism. Merton would have agreed that universalism was maintained throughout this process. The physicians working for the European Organization for Nuclear Research are not as qualified as Einstein, as he is one of the greatest scientists to live. However, their contribution was taken seriously and was not simply dismissed due to their qualifications compared to Einstein. If the data turned out to be accurate, this theory developed at CERN would have dismissed Einstein’s theory, which proves that universalism did apply. Lastly, Ereditato did follow the norm of disinterestedness. Ereditato accepted the fact that the results were a product of a measurement error even though this contradicted his earlier statement and lead to him being forced to step down. Ereditato’s priority was towards the advancement of the scientific community, rather than personal gain from this potential discovery. The fact that Ereditato increased the scope of his scientific observation to find this error furthers Popper’s concept of
realism. Unfortunately for Ereditato, the Internet network was detrimental to the reputation of the project when he declared that they were “confident of the results”. Latour theorized that facts created in laboratories couldn’t reach the outside world without a network. Ereditato’s bold statement, that they were close to proving Einstein’s theory of relativity wrong, spread quickly due to the Internet. The Internet network is available to the entire world, not just the scientific community, which proves that science has a good relationship with society since they are intertwined. Although the Internet is a valuable source for establishing networks throughout the world, this efficient network backfired on Ereditato. CERN’s potential discovery reached and alarmed the scientific community, and this lead to later humiliation when the calculations were finalized. Ultimately, the one true discrepancy was Ereditato’s statement about being confident in the results. This statement was the single reason the two were forced to step down. Measurement errors occur frequently in the scientific community. The pair generally handled this circumstance well in terms of their application of these scientific concepts.