2008-03-08

Science

I once had a conversation with an acquaintance about a television show she had seen. Her description included the phrase, "and then they did science." I asked her to explain, and she described what the people on the show had done, and I replied, "Well, that's not science." I tried to explain what I meant. I tried to explain things like falsifiable hypotheses, and attempting to eliminate bias, and the like. She didn't understand.

Science isn't men in white lab coats with bubbling beakers. Science isn't pointing shiny instruments at things. Science isn't big expensive machines making measurements of incomprehensible quantities.

Those things can happen as part of the process, but they're not what science is.

Science is the courage to seek the truth. To separate truth from untruth. To exchange what you want to be for what is.

No comments: