Is it possible to prove a scientific theory false

Science advances by conducting the experiments that could potentially disprove our hypotheses. Increase the efficiency and impact of your science by testing clear hypotheses with well-designed experiments. View full bio. The proof lies in being able to disprove A hypothesis or model is called falsifiable if it is possible to conceive of an experimental observation that disproves the idea in question.

Three types of experiments proposed by scientists Type 1 experiments are the most powerful. Type 1 experimental outcomes include a possible negative outcome that would falsify, or refute, the working hypothesis.

It is one or the other. Type 2 experiments are very common, but lack punch. No-one wants to diminish the accuracy of our statements. But even accommodating the modern media cycle is possible. Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Michael J. Biercuk , University of Sydney. Author Michael J. The more evidence, the stronger the theory and the more accepted it becomes.

Scientists are usually very careful to accumulate lots of evidence and test their theories thoroughly. But the history of science has some key, if rare, examples of evidence misleading enough to bring a whole scientific community to believe something later considered to be radically false. The problem occurs when the prediction is right but the theory they use to make it is wrong.

Predictions that seem particularly risky but turn out to be true look like very strong evidence, as Karl Popper and other philosophers of science have often stressed. But history shows us that even very strong evidence can be misleading. In , Johann Friedrich Meckel successfully predicted that human embryos would have gill slits.

As it happens, early human embryos do have slits in their necks that look like gills. On the basis of his theory, Hutton successfully predicted that veins of granite would be found passing through and mixing with other layers of rock. He also successfully predicted angular uncomformities , when new rock layers rest at a very different angle to the older layers immediately beneath them. Most obviously, the Earth is not designed for human beings. And, of course, Hutton had no concept of plate tectonics.