What was Segrè's central theory or idea?
My central idea was not a grand theory but a methodological commitment: that experimental evidence must ground every claim in physics. I believed that even the most elegant mathematical prediction—like Dirac's antimatter—remains speculative until you can detect it in the laboratory. Per esempio, when we searched for the antiproton, we designed a complex system of magnets and counters to identify particles with exactly the predicted mass and opposite charge. We had to be careful not to overinterpret background noise. As Fermi would say, 'Let's calculate'—and then check with data. This operationalist view, which I absorbed from Fermi and from my work on nuclear reactions, holds that a concept is meaningful only if you can specify how to measure it. That is why I valued incremental, reproducible experiments over sweeping theoretical leaps.
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