Re: how do you manage? (was Re: [Fwd: The Scout Report...)

["JACK L. URETSKY (C)1998; HEP DIVISION, ARGONNE NATIONAL LAB ARGONNE, IL 60439" <JLU@HEP.ANL.GOV>]

Hi all-
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Hershel Neuman supplies us with the following quote from a bunch of educators:
Science is the systematic enterprise of gathering knowledge about the world
and organizing and condensing that knowledge into testable laws and
theories.

The success and credibility of science is anchored in the willingness of
scientists to:

(1) expose their ideas and results to independent testing and replication by
other scientists;  this requires the complete and open exchange of data,
procedures, and materials;

(2) abandon or modify accepted conclusions when confronted with more
complete or reliable experimental evidence.

Adherence to these principles provides a mechanism for self-correction that
is the foundation of the credibility of science.
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        I have given up trying to define "science"; I don't think I know what
it is.  I know what my colleagues and I do, and I know that sometimes some of
my colleagues stray beyond the bounds of credibility ("everyone is a bit daft
but thee and me, and sometime thee seem a bit queer").  I don't know how the
quoted definition helps.  I don't think that it necessarily excludes astrology -
and I would not include astrology as a science.
                                        Regards,
                                                        Jack

"These several facts prove nothing, for one cannot deduce a principle from so
few examples, but they do at least indicate that the ability to learn to spell
correctly is a gift; that it is born in a person, and that it is a sign of
intellectual inferiority.  By parity of reasoning, its absence is a sign of
great mental power."
                Mark Twain, "Extract from Eve's Diary'.