AbstractsPsychology

It has been said that, had the physicist not discovered the electron, the chemist would have been forced to invent it. That is to say that, in trying to understand the Chemical behaviour of atoms, some knowledge of the physical structure of those atoms is required; and if the relevant information is not forthcoming from other disciplines, it must be inferred — “invented”, if you will. In similar fashion the physicist has had to “invent”, and rather freely at times. All atomic nuclei, if composed solely of the more readily observable constituents, should blow up instantly and with incredible violence. But matter is surprisingly stable. To explain this stability, physicists now think of the nuclear constituents as being involved in an esoteric process known as “meson exchange”, which serves to unite them. Needless to say, no physicist has observed this process directly. Another instance from physics concerns certain peculiarities in the emission of electrons from radioactive nuclei; peculiarities which seemingly involve a local violation of some of the most basic laws of physics. To avoid this unpleasant situation, a rather embarrassing particle called the neutrino has been invented  – embarrassing because the neutrino apparently plays no other role in the physicist’s picture of the world, nor does it seem at present even theoretically possible to detect in any direct fashion.[...]