Science

I like to think of myself as a scientist, well, with two science degrees, I suppose I have to, and there is a science-slant to some of the articles elsewhere on this site. This section is for the ones that don't fit in the other categories.

Babies are natural scientists - they observe, experiment, form hypotheses, test them, and so learn about the universe, but the more educated people around them call this playing. As we grow up, we tend to rely more heavily on past experience and what we have been told, and less on our own observations, but a good scientist will always be prepared to challenge established knowledge on the basis of fresh observation.

Science sometimes gets a bad press, and people tell us, "Science doesn't have all the answers". This is true, science is better than that, science has all the questions. The motto of the Royal Society, the foremost scientific association since 1663, is Nullius in Verba, meaning "Take no-one's word for it". If you have an idea that a scientific law is wrong, you can present your own hypothesis, and do the experiments and make the observations to prove or disprove it. Einstein demolished Newton's laws, yet they are both considered great scientists today.