Comments on: What is science’s rightful place?

By: Jon D

Jon D — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:16:40 +0000

Yes! Brilliantly put there..
schools should be spending more time teaching children how to figure things out rather than making them memorise lists of facts that make very little sense to them.
They can figure the details out later!

By: henry

henry — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:30:41 +0000

possibly the best thing you’ve ever written Ed. love it.
h

By: Christie

Christie — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:28:30 +0000

Nobody puts Science in a corner!

By: crarol crackel

crarol crackel — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:29:55 +0000

This would be a nice piece, with some slight editing, for the NPR series of “This I Believe” essays.

By: arensb

arensb — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 04:07:51 +0000

I dedicated an entire post to this question, but it boils down to this: as reconnaissance is to military strategy, so is science to government policy: a way of knowing what lies ahead, making it possible to plan accordingly.

By: Lilian Nattel

Lilian Nattel — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:10:18 +0000

I really like the way you put this: “We should be strive to be unceasing in our curiosity…We should value inquiry and the power of evidence to change opinions. We should be unflinching in our search for understanding and the desire to test the world around us.”
I think there is too much emphasis in our culture on practical outcomes. Practical meaning money-making. While there is value to practical applications, that can’t always be foreseen, and what is useful and what makes money isn’t the same either. I think we need to place more emphasis on wonder, curiosity and the value of truth in and of itself, while remaining open to the fact that truth is much bigger than limited human beings can conceive. And even so, we should keep striving for it, and revising our understanding of it as evidence shows it differently from what we had previously believed.

By: Matlatzinca

Matlatzinca — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:13:05 +0000

What is Science’s rightful place?
It is limited by Planck length.
I had a hard time thinking of a humorous “alternative” since this is such an important question. Science belongs in the mind of every child.

By: Stu

Stu — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:50:11 +0000

3) In the classroom. Duh!
I agree with you wholeheartedly: teaching the scientific METHOD is as important as what that method has unearthed so far.

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:57:57 +0000

More! I crave more alternative answers!

By: Jake Young

Jake Young — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:31:12 +0000

Here is the “alternative answer” I was going to write:
3) Just like Baby…in the corner.