If you missed our first meeting of the term, here’s the video we watched (just barely, thanks to all three Dragonfly networks sucking as usual). Kary Mullis, Nobel Prize-winning biochemist discusses the crucial role of experimentation in science. Read on for some excerpts from our discussion, and an interesting follow-up video by physicist David Deutsch.
Discussion takeaways:
- This video dates itself a bit (2002), as Mullis’ closing comments related to global warming are a misinterpretation (see the comments on the video page). This in itself is a good reflection of the fact that even the brightest scientists with extensive observational evidence still may not draw the correct conclusions.
- Science is not always the noble pursuit of knowledge we are brought up to believe. It is not impervious to bias, not insulated from the real world of economic and political motivations. Even within academic circles, science is sometimes taught dogmatically, with much reverence for its methods and forefathers, with a sense of faith that some might describe as religious.
- There seems to be a higher barrier to entry to science today than in days of yore, as higher levels of math and theoretical understanding are required — there is so much that has been discovered, particularly explaining the things that we can see and deal with day-to-day, that science has largely moved into the realm of the unseen.
- Scientists are also generally a fairly elite bunch by nature. The language alone separates them and their findings from the average person. Specialized language is necessary to communicate scientific concepts, so how can we “dumb it down” to accurately enlighten the masses? The media and the internet have helped spread and even democratize information, but do we lose necessary nuance and context? Is it too easy for us to filter and zone in on only sources that agree with our preconceptions?
Apologies if I missed anyone’s insightful points here (or injected my own biases 
Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments! And here’s the video I mentioned about observation not necessarily being enough grounds for a good theory.
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