# "Everything we thought we knew was flawed" scenario

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-thought-we-knew-was-flawed-scenario/749421>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 18, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-thought-we-knew-was-flawed-scenario/749421 "2016-03-18T18:04:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-thought-we-knew-was-flawed-scenario/749421/41 "2016-03-21T23:01:45Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Quoth **Saint Cad** :
> 
> Would Jocelyn Bell be in this discussion?

Only in so far as that she was a student who made a significant discovery. But first of all, she was a _graduate_ student, and they’re expected to be doing independent research, and second, what she discovered was just plain new: There was no established science either for or against it. She certainly did better than most grad students do, but it still doesn’t really warrant mention in this discussion.

I seem to recall reading of another result by grad students, involving either P or CP symmetry breaking, which would be more apropos to this thread, since the symmetry was previously believed to be absolute, and the experiment was disbelieved by their advisor. But I’m not finding it on a casual search.

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**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-thought-we-knew-was-flawed-scenario/749421/42 "2016-03-22T02:42:06Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I seem to recall reading of another result by grad students, involving either P or CP symmetry breaking, which would be more apropos to this thread, since the symmetry was previously believed to be absolute, and the experiment was disbelieved by their advisor. But I’m not finding it on a casual search.

Cronin and Fitch? Didn’t they already have doctorates?

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**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-thought-we-knew-was-flawed-scenario/749421/43 "2016-03-22T15:02:17Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Even if it had ever happened, the response wouldn’t be “Great Scott, you’re right!”. It would be more like “Hm, that’s a good point, I’ll have to get back to you on that.”.

And I saw this happen several times when I was an undergraduate. From very rough recollection, about 2/3 of the time the professor came back and said “No, despite my momentary confusion, I was right the first time – here’s why the objection was wrong”, and 1/3 of the time, said “I figured out I had /copied an equation wrong from my notes to the board/made a simple math error/some other error unrelated to the actual subject”.

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