[macrocosmos]

Macrocosmos walks into the Pub dripping wet from all the rain outside and Says, "Greetings to all on this dark and stormy night I bring good wishes and cheer to all certain in the knowlege that reality is a chemical state subject to infinite change. I have been musing on the nature of science and I have started a list, perhaps you could peruse it and add to it or simply express an opinion.

1. Science is a device for explaining magic
2. Science is based on the systematic recording of observed phenomena
3. scientific Observation is based on other than being awake and being in the right place at the right time, three primaries called CTE for short and can be expressed as
a) what made it Happen, we can call this Cause
b) What happened to it on the way, we can call this Transition
c) what it did when it got there, we can call this effect.
So CTE Cause, Transition, Effect.
4.A scientific explanation of course always depends on the viewpoint of the Observer.
5.A true scientist is someone who would prefer to watch someone else push the button, however they are more than prepared to push the button themselves if sufficient funding and tenure are made available.
6. A true scientist is Nobly prepared to accept success, and is just as well prepared to blame failure on bad data, insufficient funding, lack of time, contamination of samples, Etc.

Perhaps you can add to this list?

[Guille]

Great starter and theme. I give a point from my own crops:

7.Science is observation; philosophy is interpretation.

[mkirkpatrick]

Great thread starter John,I in particular like magic and science,and how science tries to explain away the beauty and majesty of reality.with mundane
excuses for that which beyond their understanding,"they" cannot measure
reality their ruler is tooooo short.alas!!



kind regards michael.

[Jim Colyer]

Carl Sagan referred to science as the candle in the dark.

[theunify]

Originally Posted by Jim Colyer Carl Sagan referred to science as the candle in the dark.

~theunify walks into the bar_
~theunify storms into his regular seat and orders up a glass of oxygen laced with 2 times the optical density in hydrogen.

Aww this is one fine glass, and one cool drink, I think it reminds me of a thing we had back on Planet.... Planet.... ~theunify stutters, he can't figure out what he's saying, has he woken from a long dream, or is this a Waking Nightmare...The Planet.... Planet..... ~theunify finishes his drink and stares at the wall, trying to block out the memories of that place, the dry scorched Earth.