|
When you were eight years old, you already knew much more about the world than some of the most brilliant scientists. Scientists from the past that is. What people know and understand today, has developed over many many years. Not gradually, little by little, but by leaps and bounds. For many centuries scientists agreed the Earth was the centre of the universe. But then came Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) who caused a scientific revolution by saying it was the sun instead. That is why he was such a great scientist and why this journal is named after him. Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein caused similar revolutions in physics and astronomy. So did Charles Darwin with his theory of evolution in biology.
Were the scientists before them stupid? Now that we know more it would be easy to say they were stupid.
But no. Even a genius like Copernicus was wrong putting the sun in the centre of the universe. At the time nobody could prove it because there were no telescopes to make the necessary observations. Especially in the Middle Ages - just before Copernicus - almost everybody believed God had created the Earth and all living things. How could God's own creation not  be the centre of the universe? One simply could not imagine that it could be different. And the Church, which was much more important than it is today, didn’t want people to think differently. The Italian astronomer Giordano Bruno dared to suggest that space was infinite and there were many more solar systems than ours. In 1600 he was tried by the Catholic Church and burned at the stake for saying so.
There are many reasons why scientists, then and now, believe more or less the same things. Some things you cannot know without the proper technology, such as computers or telescopes. Other things you simply cannot imagine because it doesn’t fit into ideas that everybody – or almost everybody – has, such as about God. But thinking more or less in the same way is a good thing too. It is even necessary to have similar ideas and similar ways to find out more, so we can understand each other and work in the same direction. But then some day, a scientist finds a new and better way to explain things: a scientific revolution!
Anomalies
Then how does a scientific revolution come about? Many times a revolution occurs when someone discovers a so-called anomaly: a fact, an observation, the result of a computation or something else which goes against the ideas of all the scientists in that field. Quite often, other scientists at first do not believe that the anomaly is real. They will say it is a mistake, the guy did not look right, or made the wrong measurements. And sure enough, in many cases it is indeed a mistake, or it can be explained without upsetting everybody’s belief. Yet, every now and then the anomaly is true and cannot be explained away, however hard one tries to resist or ignore it.
How about science today?
Will scientific revolutions occur again? Will bright young scientists find anomalies in physics, geology, chemistry, astronomy or any other scientific field? Facts that go against the firm believes of every scientist? We cannot be absolutely certain, but looking at the history of science we can say: most probably yes. And more: the time between one scientific revolution and the next, is becoming less and less.
From the Ancients until Copernicus and Darwin it took at least two thousand years. From Newton to Einstein just about two centuries and from Einstein to a physicist named Heisenberg only twelve years. Science develops faster for many reasons.
One is that in many parts of the world there are schools and universities where one is free to do real science. Without having to be afraid of the Church, dictators or anyone else.
Another is better technology, such as better computers and telescopes. And maybe the advancement in science has something to do with the fact that the world population has grown. Of all the people and all the scientists who ever lived, about half of them is alive today.
It is unlikely you will witness something as big as the so-called Copernican revolution. But then again, you cannot completely rule out the possibility that in your lifetime an anomaly will be found that will bring a completely new understanding of the world and ourselves.
We can be fairly certain however, there will be smaller revolutions in specialised fields of science. Discoveries which at first may only be appreciated by some specialists. Yet, even so-called ‘small’ scientific revolutions may in the end have far reaching consequences that could change our daily lives as much or even more than electricity and computers did.
Go back and read the articles about anomalies that caused scientific revolutions.
Powered by AkoComment! |
