H/t to Mark Traphagen for sharing an article well worth reading, especially for those who misunderstand “science” as a set of facts that seem to get changed all the time, rather than as a critical way of thinking and evaluating evidence, a method and not a data set.
Realistically, one should NEVER say that “science changes its mind.” That is a meaningless statement.
Rather, one could say something more like: the scientific method is constantly striving to improve its abilities to gather and understand information in light of the total body of knowledge gathered and in context.
Originally shared by Mark Traphagen
Ever hear someone say they don’t trust science because “Scientists keep changing their minds”?
The problem isn’t science. For one thing, science really “changing its mind” is a good thing because science is an ever-evolving process leading always closer to The Truth.
But more often the problem isn’t careful science, but popular science reporting, which leads people to believe that a single study or preliminary research “proves” something, which then becomes “science says….”
In this post Brandon Withrow of The Curious Ape provides us with several great examples of how real science progress through many wrong (or partially-wrong) answers to arrive at what is actually the case.
http://www.thecuriousape.com/gravitational-waves-what-real-science-looks-like/
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