Self-falsification as a driver of scientific progress: Insights from long-term experimental research

Over a 24-year research period, three successive experimental investigations led to three publications, each of which falsified the author’s preceding hypothesis and proposed a revised conceptual framework. Despite an initial confidence in having identified definitive solutions, subsequent experimental evidence consistently demonstrated the limitations and inaccuracies of earlier interpretations. This iterative process ultimately revealed that samples, in particular geological reference materials, sharing identical petrographic or mineralogical descriptions are not necessarily chemically equivalent and can exhibit markedly different behaviors during chemical digestion procedures. These findings underscore the critical importance of continuous hypothesis testing, self-falsification, and experimental verification in scientific research, particularly when working with reference materials assumed to be identical. I will be presenting data on the analysis of platinum group elements (PGE) and osmium isotopes in geological reference materials (chromitites, ultramafic rocks and basalts), which demonstrates the need for challenging matrices for method validation.