Another silly science soap box

By definition science is suppose to be objective. The scientific method has provided the framework for thousand upon thousands of discoveries. Someone with a hypothesis does an experiment to prove or disprove an idea. Nonetheless, motivation for testing a hypothesis plays such a determinate role in the outcome of an experiment that logic soon becomes dangerously subjective.

Take for example what I learned in school. Science fair was a passion of mine all through grade school and into high school. Every year I would come up with some hair-brained idea to prove right or wrong. It started with things like “which battery lasts the longest.” Then there was a period where I was environmentally motivated. So I did a project trying to test if household items were biodegradable. Basically I buried a bunch of trash in the back yard. The next year I did pretty much the same thing, but watered it to see if I could speed up the process. I always wanted my experiments to work. Was it a complex I had about always being right? Maybe I just wanted to impress my dad or win first place. Whatever my motivation, I don’t think I ever truly conducted an objective experiment. And I look back now only to realize it didn’t really matter if I succeeded or not because either way I was discovering something new.

Then in college, in chemistry, in physics, I can’t count the number of times I fudged my data in labs. Why? Maybe to ensure I got and “A” so I could get into medical school, or to impress a certain teacher or classmate. I just wonder if I am the only one who did this? Its not like I have lost faith in the scientific community. It is more that I wonder why science is thought of as such an objective area of study when it is really like a work of art. In comparison to subjects like literature and poetry it really is rather objective, but pure objectivity leaves out creativity and some of the greatest scientist obviously had quite creative minds. What motivated Einstein to come up with the theory of relativity? I am sure he wanted more than to just get an “A” or to impress his father. It was his brilliant imagination.

A true genius is someone who can come up with an idea that no one has ever thought of before and have the knowledge to realize the idea is new. I am constantly coming up with thoughts that I think are brilliant only to find out my ideas are old news. Even as I write this I think many people have already had these thoughts before me. A genius must also be humble enough to explain his new idea to the world in a way that idiots like myself can understand. Like the way Stephen Hawkin can write about time. It is when people become arrogant that they lose the ability to recognize an original idea.