The Myth of the Crucial Experiment Is scientific knowledge
ironclad? Can single experiments offer definitive proof? Popular
notions of monolithic science would suggest so. Nowhere is this
more evident than in our stories about science and its
history—which naturally embody our current views of the nature
of science. Even textbooks that do not delve deeply into history
often celebrate the dramatic evidence offered by single
"classic" experi-ments. —And many such experiments become
enshrined in lab books as simplified exercises for students. The
notion of crucial experiments deserves a skeptical eye, however.
The closer we dissect history, the more difficult it generally
becomes to identify any one test or fragment of evidence that
the entire scientific community found persuasive or conclusive.
Often, the "critical" results must be interpreted in the context
of several other experiments. At other times, a mixed
constellation of results was important. Several articles here
reveal the complexity behind several "c