Why science getting it wrong isn't always a bad thing | The Royal Society

Do you remember when Pluto was a planet? Will Newton and Einstein's theories always be the best we have? When new facts emerge it doesn't mean science can't be trusted. Quite the opposite. Here's why questioning established understanding is good.

#Pluto #Supercontinents #Newton #Science #ScientificMethod

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[al]

Listening to one's own mistakes is the humility of science.

[abjeh]

The term 'planet' is just made up by humans, it wasn't a mistake. Much better to teach children that humans make up all this, and moons, planets, stars, etc. are all just matter moving around.
Edit: great video though

[katmahbub]

Hmmm.... Calling Pluto a planet was NEVER a "fact"... it was assigning a label that humans created to categorize. That is not FACT. The fact is that pluto is a certain size, has a certain orbit... and those quantifiable measurements might be wrong, corrected, and can change in the future based on new instruments and changes to the object we call Pluto.

[RoseMarieLeo]

Brilliant! Moreover, Elon Reeve Musk FRS, understands being wrong (and failing) is always an option because if you're not, you're not innovating enough. This is what we call a growth mindset -- the ability to fail, learn something new, and then approach the problem from a different angle until you find a solution that works. Today, Elon is 50 years old.

[hannahkroon]

Which makes the censorship of opposing scientific views so much more insideous!

[StephenBlower]

And to just prove a point, the part about Einstein's theory of Gravity replacing Newtons, it hasn't happened. Einstein's theories only become relevant when we're talking about huge stuff. Black Holes, Galaxies. And not travelling between planets. We still use Newton's theories for ALL spacecraft, be they satellites of the Earth or missions to planets, Newtons theories are just fine.

[iseriver]

Wrong. Science would be far more efficient if people just get everything right first time.
We would've had quantum computers 300 years ago if Newton thought a bit harder about gravity.