Scientists Search for Own Errors

This is a very good article to read, especially if you are not familiar with how science is done.

The thing that I find ironic is that, for those of us who are in science, and physics in particular, we deal with things that often have degree of certainty significantly higher than, let's say, various ideas and "principles" in social sciences such as politics, economics, etc. Yet, we care a lot more in terms of errors and ambiguities in what we do, while in politics, you very seldom see anything resembling something similar. What you do see are definite statements about something, where people seem to have no qualm to attribute the cause-and-effect with utmost certainty.

I've always said that a science education, and certainly a physics education, is valuable not simply to learn the subject matter, but to learn the process on how we arrive at a conclusion and to what extent is the conclusion valid. Most people seem to not be aware of any kind of "degree of certainty" in the things they hear and accept. Evolution isn't 100% proven? Of course! But it has a higher degree of certainty than MANY other things that one readily accepts! Furthermore, scientific ideas and principle are NEVER proven, unlike mathematics. They only have degree of certainty. The degree of certainty of Newton's Law is so high, we use it to build houses and buildings in which depend our lives on. But is Newton's Law "proven" to be 100% correct? Nope! There is no such thing as 100% correct in physics.

Yet, we see politicians, social scientists, and economists routinely proclaim many of their ideas to be 100% correct. The fallacy perpetuates.....

Zz.