His idea was that if the change in a theoretical framework is both intensive and extensive, the paradigm shift results in a completely new way of looking at the data and problems of the field, and if the discipline has universal significance, the paradigm shift results in a new way of looking at the world. Examples of the larger paradigm shift are the Newtonian and Darwinian theories. Kuhn argued that scientific development is cyclical, essentially moving from orthodoxy to paradigm shift to orthodoxy. Kuhn's early work was in general well-received by the scientific community, but the later application of his ideas by the social sciences to studies of the cultural determinants of science met with considerable irritation among many physical and biological scientists, who found unacceptable the notion of strong cultural determinants assuming primacy of importance over the objectivity of the scientific method and scientific attitude. Kuhn does not distinguish between the durable and ephemeral parts of physical theory, between the durable equations that work and the ephemeral interpretations of why the equations work.
Many scientists remain skeptical about the ephemeral parts of their own theories.
For example, the present theory of the Standard Model for elementary particles has been tremendously successful in accounting for the measured properties of the particles, but physicists today are not firmly committed to the view of nature on which it is based. Revolutions in science seem to fit Kuhn's description only to the extent that they mark a shift in understanding some aspect of nature from pre-science to modern science. The revolution that didn't happen. Weinberg received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 for his theoretical work unifying the weak nuclear force and the electromagnetic force. He shared the prize with Abdus Salam, who independently achieved the same result.