Tech Facts

The Art Of Questioning Science

What if Newton hadn’t asked himself how apple came to fall on Earth? What if Columbus didn’t fight to prove that Earth is round and not flat? What if Internet never came into existence? Had the concept of gravity never come into existence, we would have never left the ground and moon would only be a part of fairy tales. Consequently, the discovery of every innovation starts with a set of questions.

“The scientist is not someone who delivers the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions.”, Claude Levi-Strauss.

Asking right questions is the crux of virtuous science. Insightful queries can challenge the accepted norms and models and jolt the way we think about a concept. Of course, you need an inquisitive, curious mind to come up with the right answers. Some of the most stimulating science discoveries would never have materialized, without preliminary spark of inspiration from someone asking a really good question. The type of question that holds the audience and makes them think “wow, that’s a really good point!”

Source: next-action.eu

What Is Science?

Science as a terminology cannot be defined from just a single perspective. From sociological viewpoint, science is the systematic study of human society, organization, institutions, and identifying causes of the changing relationships among individuals and groups. While science of psychology and humanity have altogether different concept. The only thing that connects each of the branches via science is the ability to question it. Interestingly, the question remains same for each of the sector but the answers differ. For instance, questions like how useful is science for society or what future does it hold for our stream will remain same for humanity and sociology but their answers differ based on their need.

Why Do We Need to Question Science?

Nobody is perfect, including science. For instance, some studies show that alcohol is bad for health and has claimed lots of lives while many studies claim that alcohol is good for your health. Now for common masses, this flip-flopping nature of science has become a matter of concern and confusion prevails. This doesn’t mean we should stop questioning and researching.

Ignoring this latest vogue, the idea of asking insightful and pertinent questions lies in the fact that the old questions are no longer working. It’s been verified time and again that established beliefs and conventions keep changing in science. What we believe to be true now could easily be invalidated in next 100 years or 50 years or maybe tomorrow. The future of science is dependent on people asking curious questions and challenging accepted knowledge.

Live Learn Evolve

Before the major breakthroughs, knowledge was the property of small number of people i.e. royalty or religious people. After industrial revolutions, people began to realize the worth of knowledge, learned and eventually evolved. The current version of world now is whole lot different from the earlier version. But it all started with right germination of idea. Necessity became the mother of all innovations as poverty-stricken people started questioning the dominance and inequality. Questioning the authority became a common phenomenon as people realized their worth.

Source: pewresearch.org

They eventually evolved and the changes witnessed during that era have now become a history. We are still on the same path and continuously learning to evolve. But it all started with one thing: Why?

If you have anything to share or have an opinion, please comment in the section below.

Next Read: Will Capsule Networks Replace Traditional Neural Networks?

Leave a comment