ot the logic _about_ the axioms,
but the axioms themselves--are proven to be wrong?"

* * * * *

Brian Taggert took his pipe out of his mouth. "Why, you give up the
erroneous set of axioms and build a new set that will explain the new
phenomenon. Isn't that what a scientist is supposed to do?" His manner
was that of wide-eyed innocence laid on with a large trowel.

"Oh, _sure_ it is," said the senator. "A man builds his whole life,
his whole universe; on a set of principles, and he scraps them at the
drop of a hat. _Sure_ he does."

"He claims he will," MacHeath said. "Any scientist worth the paper his
diploma is printed on is firmly convinced that he will change his
axioms as soon as they're proven false. Of course, ninety-nine per
cent of 'em _can't_ and _won't_ and _don't_. They refuse to look at
anything that suggests changing axioms.

"Some scientists eagerly accept the axioms that they were taught in
school and hang on to them all their lives, fighting change tooth and
nail. Oh, they'll accept new ideas, all right--provided that they fit
in with the structures based on the old axioms.

"Then there are the young iconoclasts who don't like the axioms as
they stand, so they make up some new ones of their own--men like
Newton, Einstein, Planck, and so on. Then, once the new axioms have
been forced down the throats of their colleagues, the innovators
become the Old Order; the iconoclasts become the ones who put the
fences around the new images to safeguard them. And they're even more
firmly wedded to their axioms than anyone else. This is _their_
universe!

"Of course, these men proclaim to all the world that they are
perfectly willing to change their axioms. And the better a scientist
he is, the more he believes, in his heart-of-hearts, that he really
would change. He really thinks, consciously, that he wants others to
test his theories.

"But notice: A theory is only good if it explains all known phenomena
in its field. If it does, then the only thing that can topple it is a
_new_ fact. The only thing that can threaten the complex structure
formulated by a really creative, painstaking, mathematical physicist
is _experiment_!"

Senator Gonzales' attentive silence was eloquent.

"Experiment!" MacHeath repeated. "That can wreck a theory quicker and
more completely than all the learned arguments of a dozen men. And
every theoretician is aware of that fact. Consciously, he gladl