Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Editor’s note: Here’s another column from Solomon. Hope you enjoy it! Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.–Bessie.
“Truth comes out of error more easily than out of confusion.”
–Sir Francis Bacon
Clik here to view.
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
What is science?
Science is purely a way of understanding the world around us. At the heart of that understanding are the explanations that science gives for natural phenomena. Whatever we call these explanations — theories, hypotheses or stories — they are only attempts to describe one thing: how nature works based on the fundamental rules of logic, empirical evidence and intellectual creativity.
In 1620 A major revolution in scientific thinking happened. Francis Bacon published the Novum Organum in which he advocated inductive reasoning as the sole means of rational scientific truth.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
This process involves exhaustive and carefully selected scientific data that is analyzed until general relationships and conclusions emerge. Although strict adherence to such a system can rule out theoretical speculation and imagination, we realize this a necessary compromise.
This tradeoff has to be made between this system by which logical thinking proceeds from the specific to the general, and one that allows a scientist moderate creativity in going from the specific to the general. And in so doing, scientists achieve progress beyond the reach of working paradigms.
In this respect, history has prominently demonstrated that some of the most profound and powerful scientific discoveries have been impelled and fully driven by independent creative thought under the construct of the deductive approach.
The Scientific method
We learn something valuable from observing Bacon’s view in that the scientific method. When applied uniformly and consistently, this method can successfully explain the state of nature as it exists and operates.
And the beauty of science lies in its predictability when a formal and careful process is applied to every scientific problem:
- Devising many alternate hypotheses for the studied phenomenon.
- Devising crucial experiments with outcomes that will exclude non-relevant hypotheses.
- Performing experiments with clear and definitive results.
Expect the unexpected
Often, the most important scientific discoveries are those that completely change the way we think about nature. It is unlikely that anyone can predict such discoveries. For the most part, scientists work within conceptual paradigms (a set of models and expectations about nature and the way it works). There paradigms have been slowly and meticulously developed over the course of many years of experimentation and rational effort.
Therefore, it is relatively difficult for a scientist to imagine natural events that lie beyond the bounds of a paradigm. For example, Ptolemy, could not have imagined a universe filled with galaxies. Such a notion lied totally beyond his conceived geocentric paradigm.
Clik here to view.
Milestones of Medicine {second of six sculptures of the Berliner Walk of Ideas}
The point is that the most important scientific discoveries appear unexpectedly. They are often made by people working independently without the pressures of peers, biases, or predispositions.
Some famous scientific accidents
Yet we should be readily able to discern between an unexpected discovery and an accidental discovery. For instance, in 1928, when Alexander Fleming noticed that bacteria in a culture dish were avoiding a spot of mold, his ingenuity was not so much his subsequent discovery of penicillin. It was his ability to recognize the phenomena as important.
It was likely that many others had the same observation. But Fleming was the first to recognize the importance of this phenomena.
Fleming spent many years studying bacterial growth and honed his skills as an observer. His years of hard work and tireless training led him to identify his later observation. Fleming’s discovery proved to be tremendously significant to human health and the treatment of previously incurable diseases.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Other famous scientific accidents include:
Konrad Röntgen’s recognition of the glowing florescent screen in his lab as a source of x-rays in 1895. Henri Becquerel placed a piece of mineral containing uranium over a photographic plate. He later noted that the plate became fogged as a result of natural radioactivity in 1896.
Röntgen and Becquerel made their discoveries not by chance. They relied on long years of experience and strenuous training that prepared them to discriminate the significance of what they saw.
Thinking outside the box
What does all of this have to do with the pursuit of academic research and the enterprise of science in general? Simply put, many important or even revolutionary scientific discoveries lie outside that current paradigm. They are often made by scientists who are studying some other phenomenon than the one at hand.
It is only training, acquired knowledge and individual experience that are important in undertaking any form of scientific endeavor and research project. The incisive ability to question, and the drive to understand nature according to its fundamental principles, these are the makings that define a scientist in the truest sense.
The search for new discoveries
Of course I feel that it is appropriate to share one additional philosophy that is relevant to the 21st century directives of research scientists around the world.
Many scholars and scientific historians remain eager to suggest that the rate of scientific progress in the last century has been and will continue to be, of a highly accelerated and technical rate.
Nevertheless, in my better judgment, many of our recent feats and seemingly heroic conceptual achievements are overrated, compared to the larger sphere of theoretical inquiries and main fundamental questions that pervade the many modern fields of science.
Clik here to view.
Relativity {sixth and last sculpture of the Berliner Walk of Ideas}
For instance, when we ride a train or a car and look at our immediate surroundings, it seems as though all of the objects that are near us move with incredible speed. But when we look out at the periphery of our journey and see to the prominent features of the landscape in the distant mountains or the road ahead, the scenery seems to barely change, if at all.
It the same with the fundamental questions of science. Now that we understand this, we must next realize a key premise of scientific discovery: in order to take any meaningful strides toward ultimate truths, scientific effort must be made from all fronts and intellectual bearings.
As a cooperative group of professionals, scientists in all disciplines must be willing and committed to devote their energies in two ways:
- Formulate and promote bigger questions.
- Use the best of their resources and innovating creativity in finding satisfactory answers to our human curiosities.
We must undertake all of this while at the same time realizing that a rich and beautiful world apart from scientific thinking exists. The ambitions of an insignificant species like our ours can compare little to the enormous space, time and creation that is outwardly manifested from us and the state of our beings.
Notwithstanding, the conquests and challenges await, the dedicated students and scholars of tomorrow who are dream of exploring the true nature that embodies them.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Solomon Nabatiyan, Ph.D.
Columnist
Secretary of Innovation
“In imagination & creativity we trust…”
https://twitter.com/#!/Sec_Innovation/status/160948378195329024
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
If you enjoyed this column, please subscribe to our Email list |
© Copyright 2012 Secretary of Innovation, All rights reserved