The article discusses the importance of making errors in the scientific process and how it contributes to learning and progress. The author, Paulina Kuo, a physicist at NIST, shares her personal experiences of being wrong in her scientific career, emphasizing that it’s a natural and necessary part of the scientific method.
Key points:
– Being wrong is a common and expected part of the scientific process
– It’s crucial to catch errors before they leave the lab and before they make headlines
– Science requires persistence and repeated testing to overcome failures
– Even experts like Linus Pauling can be wrong, as demonstrated by Dan Shechtman’s discovery of quasicrystals
– Making errors allows scientists to learn, correct their approaches, and make new discoveries
– Recent high-profile scientific failures, such as the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse and Mars orbiter crash, have led to important lessons and improvements in science and engineering
The article concludes that being wrong is not a sign of incompetence but rather a necessary part of the scientific journey, enabling scientists to learn, correct their approaches, and make new discoveries.
Source: https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/its-all-right-be-wrong-science
Keywords: Entanglement, Quantum Theory, Relativity, Error Correction, Standard Model
