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The 20th-century Austrian-British philosopher Karl Popper believed that any theory that was not ‘falsifiable’ – capable of being tested and proven incorrect – should be dismissed as unscientific. He was particularly critical of Marxist theory, which he believed was constantly being revised by its adherents to account for its failed predictions, and therefore could not possibly be scientific. The falsification principle is a cornerstone of the modern scientific method, but some contemporary scientists, cosmologists and philosophers believe it might need to be revised as they investigate concepts such as string theory and the multiverse, which come up against the limits of what is testable – at least for now.
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History of science
Ideas ‘of pure genius’ – how astronomers have measured the Universe across history
29 minutes
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History
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes
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Art
Background music was the radical invention of a trailblazing composer
17 minutes
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Metaphysics
What do past, present and future mean to a philosopher of time?
55 minutes
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Art
Radical doodles – how ‘exquisite corpse’ games embodied the Surrealist movement
15 minutes
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Beauty and aesthetics
In art, the sublime is a feedback loop, evolving with whatever’s next to threaten us
9 minutes
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Space exploration
The rarely told story of the fruit flies, primates and canines that preceded us in space
12 minutes
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Thinkers and theories
A rare female scholar of the Roman Empire, Hypatia lived and died as a secular voice
5 minutes
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Astronomy
The history of astronomy is a history of conjuring intelligent life where it isn’t
34 minutes