Daily Archives:September 24th, 2011

Be proud to be a scientist

The whole faster-than-light-neutrino thing is an absolutely wonderful example of the scientific method at work.

How many other fields of endeavour would handle this the same way?

Can you imagine a salesman saying, “We’ve come up with this product, but we’re a bit surprised to discover that it seems to do something we didn’t expect really, really well! Could you check this for us? Is it as good as we think, or have we just screwed up somewhere?” Mmm.

Substitute a politician, or, better, a religious leader: “Gosh! Errm… We think this might be a miracle… Could all of you skeptics out there check the facts for us and see if we’ve missed some rational explanation?”

You get my point…

This is exactly how science is meant to work. I think it’s wonderful, and it makes me proud to be a scientist.

© Copyright Quentin Stafford-Fraser