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Understanding science

Letters

Editor:

Re: “Bring on the revolutionaries” by P. J. Reece, Letters, Aug. 30.

No concept is as misunderstood as that of “science.”

A pile of bricks does not a house make. Neither does a pile of scientific facts make science. It is theories that place the facts into an order that is understandable. A scientific fact does not, cannot, exist outside some theory. It either supports, or scratches at, some theory. Indeed, Karl Popper coined the word “falsifiability.” If a fact does not have the potential of being proven false, then it is not science. Many theories build the house of science with many rooms. Why have scientists chosen the concept of a theory as the highest possible achievement? Scientists are the very first ones to admit that they don’t know everything. Every so often the wrecking ball has to be called in, and the house has to be rebuilt in a different configuration. Einstein is a classic example of explaining seemingly contradictory facts with a new theory. If you want to get rid of a scientific theory, formulate a better one.

Because of this self-correcting mechanism, it is irrelevant whether some scientists have animosities to each other. So, “show me your bricks,” or “what is your theory?”

Similarly, some people choose not to believe this theory or another. Science doesn’t care what you, I, or anyone else believes. Show me the evidence.

Klaus Blume, Gibsons