On: A new experiment casts doubt on the leading theory...

[gumby]

Particle physics is probably still stuck in the butterfly collecting phase, in which case “curve fitting” is not a criticism.

[iainmerrick → gumby]

I think the "butterfly collecting phase" in particle physics was really the 40s and 50s, when a whole bunch of surprising new particles were discovered.

Gell-Mann and other proposed a unifying principle in the 60s, and as far as I know that's been broadly successful and ultimately led to the standard model. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eightfold_way_(physics)

We are not now discovering any new unexpected particles (or any theoretically expected ones, since the Higgs), which is a bit unfortunate in terms of giving theorists something to work with.