Extreme “Exploitation” Bias: “For maximally economical progress, experimental physics must strictly stay within the hard boundaries established by theoretical frameworks.”
Extreme “Exploration” Bias: “For maximally fundamental progress, experimental physics must question all theoretical assumptions and boundaries with extreme suspicion.”
It makes sense to diversify the kind of experimental investments we make along this risk/reward or exploration/exploitation spectrum. There are unique dangers if we weight too heavily on either extreme.
No, science starts with an observation which is not explained by the prevailing theory. Then you form a hypothesis, etc.
At least in principle. The reality of science is a lot messier.
The purpose of these is to narrow down which experiments are being performed, trying to choose experiments that will try their hardest to break an existing theory.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light#Time_of_flight_...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafele%E2%80%93Keating_experim... (This article currently has an incorrect edit made yesterday. It seems to be based on a mistaken assumption that the rotating earth is a stationary reference frame. The opening paragraph should read "were consistent" rather than "were not consistent".)
If all we did was experiments we'd surely find some interesting stuff but without theory to guide where to do the next set of experiments science would be very inefficient. It's the closing of the loop that powers this tremendous progress you see from the renaissance to today.
Without that we'd be stuck in alchemy, astrology and other pseudo sciences.