LETTERS

摘要

I take issue with the critique of the role of experiment in theoretical physics by Jim Baggott and Daniel Cossins (27 February, p 38). May a physicist be allowed to set the record straight? The concept of supersymmetry was not "conceived as an elegant way to plug holes in the standard model" of particle physics. It was first noted by string theorists and then applied to supergravity. Had Albert Einstein not discovered relativity, then supersymmetry would force us to invent it. Most string theorists share the view that in the long term the test of a good theory is experiment. The jury is still out on the multiverse, for example. It is those who claim already to know whether or not our universe is unique who are being unscientific - as are those who claim to know what can and can't one day be tested.