250 scientists were asked “what they would teach the world about science and why, if they could pick just one thing.” I haven’t explored each response, though “evolution” seems to be the most common. I would simply have said, being neither a scientist nor anyone of particular note, what I was always told as an undergraduate: science is about techniques, not facts.1 To most GNXP readers this is a self-evident and banal point, but my personal experience is that most people who do not follow or practice science have not internalized this Truth.
Michael Shermer expresses my viewpoint.
Chris has much more.
1 – I would also add that science is in large part attaining the proper equilibrium between rationalism (model building), empiricism (experimentation and observation) and skepticism (replication and falsification). These guiding principles are also embedded within a scientific culture where they operate on a group as well as individual level.
Posted by razib at 09:48 PM