Uploaded September 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago

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The forgotten story of a mystery planet. With some opinions about what the story implies about the practice of science.

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00:00 Introduction
00:46 Problem Number One: Uranus
1:50 Problem Number Two: Mercury
3:37 Something something provisional nature
4:23 Naive falsification (or disconfirmation)
6:03 Theory-ladenness of facts

What a great story, huh? You can find the basic story on Wikipedia.

But you might want to check out Thomas Levenson's book "The Hunt for Vulcan: ...And how Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe" available here: bookshop.org/a/91541/9780812988307. I am a Bookshop.org affiliate and get a small commission if you purchase through the link.

It's not really the best example of the theory-ladenness of facts, but I feel like it's a good introduction to questions about how science works and how we know what we know.

Thanks for watching.