I have loved science-- and "doing science"-- most of my life. In school, some people referred to me as the mad scientist. That wasn't too far off.
My family got used to bright electric arc flashes coming from under my door, as well as the smell of burning components and air. And other smells. Yes, I did wear safety goggles that I built myself to save my eyesight from the UV exposure. Once, I nearly burned down a friend's shed doing some electrical experiments I thought too dangerous for in the house.
Then there were the biology experiments of various types, some chemistry experiments, and quite a few physics experiments (probably my favorites). I was curious.
I didn't enjoy doing things that I knew what the results were "supposed" to be; things that countless others before me had already done (the kind of "experiments" done in school), so I tried stuff that I couldn't find a record of others already doing, but that I was curious about. I learned a lot that way.
I even experiment and test things that don't necessarily seem like subjects for scientific inquiry. I have never found that to be the wrong way to learn something useful.
Did I always come to the right conclusions? Probably not. But I tried to stay aware of my limitations and biases.
That's why the recent bastardization of science gets me so riled up. Anti-science is being sold as science to people who aren't educated in the difference.
Pope Fauci is NOT science personified. He's a cult leader.
Consensus is NOT science.
Politics is anti-science because it is dictated. Science requires liberty in order to thrive. "Authority" kills it.
Falsebook, Twutter, and Gugle/YourTub are NOT supporting science with their censorship and fact-blocking. They are hiding useful political lies from proper scrutiny. It bothers me, and nothing they say can excuse them in my eyes. I hate all these anti-science bullies.
Science is a process, not a proclamation, a cult, or a person. Treating any of those as "science" is anti-science.
Oh, I agree with this most thoroughly. Science is a process, a way to arrive at conclusions, and solid conclusions are pretty rare. It also drives me bananas to see people saying "the science is settled" because science is almost never settled. -Roh
ReplyDeleteScience is always waiting to see if a new observation comes along that would falsify the theory (and "theory" doesn't mean a guess or an idea). Sometimes it never does, but science doesn't stamp its foot and say "No new observations allowed!"
DeleteKent, this one's a keeper. Well done, indeed.
ReplyDelete"Consensus is NOT science.
Politics is anti-science because it is dictated. Science requires liberty in order to thrive. "Authority" kills it."
- sublime.
Thank you very much!
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