The mice were right?!

[Fritz_Brown]

So, according to this, the mice were right? Hitchhiker's galaxy guide on the money

The mass of the Milky Way is 3x10^42, and (as everyone knows) 42 is the answer to the ultimate question about life, the universe, and everything. Or, are these guys just making up stuff and saying to themselves, "It's math. Nobody will check it."?

 

[pendragonman]

, "It's math. Nobody will check it."?

You are mistaken. There is the entire world on mathematicians to check those kinds of things. And physicists aren't likely to let themselves open to criticism by their senior service, mathematics.

 

[redwalker]

"It's math. Nobody will check it."?

In fact, most of science gets by without being checked. In some fields this leads to grotesque abuses.

Link to scientific malfeasance:
http://www.skepticalinvestigations.org/objectivity/secret.htm

However, scientific papers tend to fall apart instantly if any detail is inconsistent, so even a very small amount of checking goes a long way.

Note that it's not the techies making the Douglas Adams reference, it's the journos.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

redwalker, you're right - except that the journos may continue with the "truth" long after real scientists have put it aside....

Oh, pendragonman, by "nobody" I meant "body"s like journos, man on the street, etc. Real scientists look for repeatability (and all the other scientific goodness) in all this stuff. Sadly, so many others don't.