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On the Quote this week, Feynman's definition of science:

I think science means the way we go about finding things that sound or appear true. That includes, for me, many disciplines in the arts and, particularly, literature, where writers and characters discover patterns that tend to be universally true, or at least popular.

Just as people say things that seem true, math and physics say things that seem true. In that case, scientists replicate conditions in order to come up a consensus on some natural behavior. When we have an evidence-supported theory we say, Yey! and try to figure out what it tells us about the world and how it fits in with other theories.

I think any living takes part in the grand experiment. We always test conditions and results. When we come up with a conclusion, such as that it's a bad idea to cross a road at a red light signal, we put as much research into effect and perform as much analysis as any lab experiment. We've even calculated how likely it is that other people will follow the same rules we do and how likely we are to be caught by a cop, given the part of town, the time of day, our own courage. It's complicated but we do it pretty well.

So, I like Feynman's loose definition of science as being the practice of finding things out, or the process of it, or the found out elements themselves. I would like to know, though, what is "found out" and what isn't. If you think you find out the Earth is flat, have you found this out, or have you not? Just because you're wrong doesn't have to mean you haven't found something out. So it can get confusing there.

Maya Lessov
Vancouver