What Scientists Really Do

[Robert Tulip]

“eminent researchers can be held captive by their entrenched intuitions and refuse to accept new ideas until they are faced with overwhelming empirical evidence contradicting their views”
“scientists continually uncover new facts that confront them with the extent of their ignorance”

This book review published in the New York Review of Books is available online free at http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archive ... ?insrc=toc

Priyamvada Natarajan
OCTOBER 23, 2014 ISSUE
Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything
by Philip Ball
University of Chicago Press, 465 pp., $35.00
Ignorance: How It Drives Science
by Stuart Firestein
Oxford University Press, 195 pp., $21.95

This is a highly informative book review regarding scientific method, addressing evolving attitudes towards curiosity, and the bizarre outcomes of public ignorance. In two incidents from 2012, Italian seismologists were jailed for failing to predict an earthquake, and North Carolina banned the use of scientific data on sea level.

The quotes above from the review, citing books by Mario Livio and Stuart Firestein, illustrate the humility and uncertainty that are core to scientific method. I think these principles are difficult to apply well, because science does have areas of certainty, and the challenge is to demarcate the boundary between certainty and uncertainty.

The review features this imaginary drawing from Titan, a view of Saturn that is impossible because Titan is wreathed in thick cloud.

[MikeRConwell]

It is really a good science book and every science student should read it ones. It is How Science Became Interested in Everything by Philip Ball.

[Cattleman]

Okay I have to start with the following:

Most “scientists” are bottle washers and button sorters. -Robert A. Heinlein, "The Notebooks of Lazarus Long," Time Enough for Love (1973 ).

But seriously, the review looks interesting, as do the books. I will read the review and comment later, and if I can find a copy of either books, will try to read it. Thanks for the post.

P.S. Love the picture.

[christ85]

yeah, it a really great book. I read it like year ago and until now I still be impressed .