Aristotle as the First Scientist
Aristotle repeatedly pointed out that his predecessors' work and conclusions were often marred by insufficient observation. He himself, after a remarkable analysis of the reproduction of bees, states that he cannot arrive at certain conclusions because "the facts have not yet been sufficiently ascertained. And if at any future time they are ascertained, then credence must be given to the direct evidence rather than to the theories; and to the theories also, provided that the results which the...
notesClassification of animals, empirical observations... he got much wrong, but to call into question his achievements for this is like criticizing the invention of Calculus because Newton believed in magic.
Unattributed Quote That Leads to Historical Misrepresenta...
Webmaster has searched for a primary print source without success. Walter Isaacson likewise found no direct evidence, as he reports in Einstein (2007), 575. However, these sentences are re-quoted in a variety of books and other sources (often citing them as a remark reportedly made by Kelvin in an Address at the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1900). Although the quote appears noteworthy, it is not included in the major biographical work, the two volumes by Silvanus P. T... notes"There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement." is a quote often attributed to Baron William Thomson Kelvin, and I have personally heard from others that there was a time when scientists thought Physics had reached the end of exploring before the discovery of quantum physics, but TodayInSci cannot find the source of this quote.
The Sequence Hypothesis and The Central Dogma
My own thinking (and that of many of my colleagues) is based on two general principles, which I shall call the Sequence Hypothesis and the Central Dogma. The direct evidence for both of them is negligible, but I have found them to be of great help in getting to grips with these very complex problems. I present them here in the hope that others can make similar use of them. Their speculative nature is emphasized by their names. It is an instructive exercise to attempt to build a useful theory ... notesCrick describes two guiding principles of understanding how DNA produces proteins. The second is interesting for the use of the term 'information.'
Teaching Babies Science
But we also have some more direct evidence for the idea that children learn like scientists. Alison and Virginia Slaughter, one of her students, looked at three-year-old children who didn't yet fully understand belief—children who still said they had always thought that there were pencils in the candy box. Then, over the course of a few weeks, Virginia gave the children systematic evidence that their predictions were false. She told them firmly that they hadn't said pencils at all, they had... notesHaving children predict something and then systematically demonstrating how their prediction is false makes them more capable of understanding how beliefs work.
