Freedom of Science

Physics is very simple. There is a set of observations. Physicists fit a curve to observations. Then they associate a philosophical label to the fit. Then they float the label. Then they negotiate for years if the label should enter the physics code. Negotiations never fail to find a mathematical sophistry that will allow the new label to fit into the existing code. Eventually, the label enters the physics code and becomes a law.

CMB is a beautiful white noise to which physicists can fit any curve:

What they do is fit the CMB data using an additional parameter they call f₁₀, which has to do with the fractional contribution of cosmic strings to the temperature power spectrum at multipole l=10. They claim to get a slightly better fit to the data with a non-zero version of this parameter and power-law tilt n_s=1, versus the usual fit with gives a n_s less than one. When they also take into account non-CMB data, the effect goes away.

Just remember to issue a press release offering the New Scientist editors the opportunity to declare your fit to be the next big revolution in physics.

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