Science Trivia. Meaningless, but fun – especially when you get a 100 like I did.
My opportunity to kibitz on the subject yet again… : Science, unlike many forms of “common sense” is a cultural tool. In other words, we don’t naturally learn the rules of science as part of our development process. Like how to crochet, how to cook, how to fix lawn-mowers – the methods of science were developed over time and can only be gotten through cultural means.
I’m trying not to be overly simplistic here. Because, just as needlework, cooking, and lawn-mower repair incorporate many functions that we do learn or develop naturally – without too much cultural assistance, so does science. Curiosity about how a thing works is both a natural asset, and one that can be sharpened through education. The ability to incorporate what is “known” with the parameters of the problem to produce intelligent hypotheses is a talent that largely develops naturally – but also through practice.
The cultural part is what I think of as the “rules”. The rules require us to check our various insights against observation, and do it in a way that keeps us from fooling ourselves by observing according to our biases. The rules require us to assess certainty of a result in a way that is quantifiable based on methods of measurement that have been calibrated beforehand. The rules require us to reject that which we aren’t compelled to accept through observation and to reject even that which seems terribly true to us if observation reliably tells us otherwise. The rules require us to make sure our observations match the observations of someone else doing the same tests.
In high school textbooks all of these rules are boiled down to a 4- or 5- step “scientific method”, but they are far more intricate and nuanced than can be summarized in this way. And, the fact is, that no one really receives the entire culture.
But, it’s a lot more interesting than just the trivia.
Meaningless, but fun
Kind of like sex after age 50
Hey man. I made a 100 also. My wife says I hate science but that is not true. There is just so much about it that I do not understand that I have to take other peoples word for it. Well when those other people do not agree with each other it leaves a guy like me really standing out in the darkness. I am forced to go with my gut and that is more times than not a recipe for disaster.
I watched “A Ghost in your Genes” the other night on NOVA. It was an hour long discussion about epigenetics. It was some fascinating stuff. When it was over I realized that I really did not know any more than I did before I watched it but that does not mean I did not like it.
I did realize during the program that I do not know the difference in DNA and genes. So that is a good thing. Anything that points out my ignorance of a subject is a net gain. I just have to take the time to educate myself. But about the time I decide I am going to educate myself somebody is kicking off to somebody else on a sports channel and I say to hell with it.
I guess it can be said that I am willingly ignorant in most instances.