• Question: what would you do if the whole of sciene was proved wrong?

    Asked by annasmells to Hywel, Joseph, Poonam on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Dr Hywel Jones

      Dr Hywel Jones answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      Ha, interesting. The beauty of science is that it is continually being tested and changed as people discover new things. Only the best possible explanations survive. So in some ways science is about always proving something wrong (i.e. the previous best theory was right until you came along with a better one). Of course the stuff that is right just stays right as no one is able to prove it wrong or some up with a better idea.
      Usually stuff isn’t “right” and “wrong” but slightly better explanations come along which describe things that little bit better than the old theory.
      In the past though there have been moments when some of the fundamental systems of belief have proven to be wrong, like when religious people thought the sun rotated around the earth. Many people died or were persecuted as the church at the time tried to protect its power and world view. In the end though science won though.
      Its doubtful whether such a big change will come again but I’m sure there will be some pretty surprising things discovered in the future. The point is though that these new things will be discovered using the scientific method so at the end of the day good science will always be the best way to explain the world around us.

    • Photo: Joseph Cook

      Joseph Cook answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      Science is a huge, interlinked series of disciplines. Many areas of science rely on theories that describe observed results and assumptions are often required in these theories, so there is always space for them to be wrong, or at least inaccurate, if the assumptions do not provide a good description of a real system.

      It would be very difficult for the WHOLE of science to be proved wrong, but if something did happen to undermine lots of the theories that we take for granted then I would enjoy working on developing new theories that give a more accurate description of the universe.

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