Martin Perl’s (Nobel Laureate) Perspective on the Nature of Science and Teaching Science

Introduction Martin L. Perl was the recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of the Tau Lepton, based on a 16-year history (1963-1979), when all experimental measurements agreed with the hypothesis that the Tau was a lepton produced by a known electromagnetic interaction (Perl et al., 1975; Perl, 1997). The objective of this chapter is to present a brief account of the discovery of the Tau Lepton in order to understand the nature of science (NOS) and then draw implications for teaching science.