What was Charpak's core philosophy in experimental physics?
For me, the theory is only as good as the experiment that can verify it. We must build instruments that are both precise and affordable. My approach was always to tackle a problem with a practical solution, often through iterative design and clever engineering. If a theory is elegant but cannot be tested with existing or developable technology, its utility is limited. The detector, the instrument, is the bridge between the abstract world of equations and the concrete reality of nature. C'est simple comme bonjour: test the ideas.
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