In Science, Pride Goeth Before a Fall

Imagine you’re a physicist in the late 19th Century.  Everything pertaining to mechanics, electrodynamics, and the wave theory of light is already in the bag.  Einstein is still working in a patent office in Switzerland.  The idea that light can behave like a particle and open up an entire new realm of science has yet to be hatched.  You might have made the same mistake pictured here.

125 years later, it’s clear that the gap between our understanding of the origins and nature of the universe and the actual truth is only getting wider.

On a related note, the questioning of science is in the news currently.  Unfortunately, it’s being done by people who know nothing about the subject, and thus do not understand that science is an evolving matter, particularly when it comes to developing tests, vaccines and treatment options for novel diseases.

I often hear people say things like, “The scientists don’t know what they’re doing, since they’re constantly changing their minds.”  Of course they are.  That’s how this works.

Again, it’s best if the relevant set of scientists is doing the questioning, rather than manicurists and landscape architects.