Changes

|Description=A theory is said to be pursued if it is considered worthy of further development. [[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|pp. 30-42]] An example is provided by mid-seventeenth century science. Throughout this period, the Aristotelian natural philosophy, with its geocentric cosmology, four elements, and four causes remained [[Theory Acceptance|accepted ]] by the scientific community of Europe as evidenced, for example, by its central role place in university curricula. The theories from this period that we are most familiar with from modern popular and professional literature, like Copernicus's heliocentric cosmology, and Galileo's theories of motion, werenot accepted, at the time, but pursued theories. More generally these included the mechanical natural philosophy championed by a community which included [[Rene Descartes|Descartes]], Huygens, Boyle, and many others, and the magnetical natural philosophy, espoused by Gilbert, Kepler, Stevin, Wilkins and others. In our modern world, the major accepted physical theories include Einstein's relativity theory, quantum mechanics, and the standard model of particle physics. A variety of other theories are not accepted but are being pursued. These include including various versions of string theory, and attempts to quantize general relativity, to create a quantum theory of gravity.[[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|p. 40]]

In our modern world, the major accepted physical theories include Einstein's relativity theory, quantum mechanics, and the standard model of particle physics. There are While a variety of unaccepted theories are typically pursued theories including various versions of string theory, and attempts to quantize general relativity, to create a quantum theory of gravity.[[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|p. 40]] Accepted accepted theories are also typically also continue to be pursued. General relativity has been the accepted theory of gravitation since roughly 1918. [[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|p. 203]] The theory and its implications for astrophysics and cosmology continue to be pursued in a variety of ways. For example, in 2016, researchers at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in the United States announced the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves, thereby verifying a major prediction of the theory. [[CiteRef::Castelvecchi and Witze (2016)]][[CiteRef::Abbott et al. (2016)]]