What is scientific knowledge?

Science is fundamentally the search for knowledge. Scientists are motivated by a tremendous curiosity about how the world works. Particularly in the biological sciences, many scientists are also motivated by awe at the mystery and complexity of nature. So how did we get this reputation of being uptight and cold-hearted, incapable of feeling wonder?

What is science, essentially? It is a set of methods, techniques for investigation. In particular, it is the process of examining alternative explanations for observable phenomena by testing them against each other. If observations fit explanation A better than explanation B, we prefer explanation A. We are always looking for possible alternative explanations for a set of observations – that’s why we run control conditions and get into heated debates with people who have different theories.

A research scientist has to be comfortable with uncertainty, with not knowing. The results of experiments are frequently surprising, and are rarely neat and tidy. So we’re constantly working in a world of nuance and uncertainty and maybe-it’s-this-way. It probably takes a certain kind of personality to be comfortable in that space. People who need definite answers could never succeed as scientists, though maybe they would do OK as engineers.

Contrary to the portrayal of science in the popular media, it is not a reified set of known facts, but a dynamic, shifting array of theories and hypotheses, constantly changing in the light of new discoveries. Yet the array has internal coherence, even as it changes. As scientific theories change, we come to new and different understandings of the world and our place in it.