Blog 9

                 In the third chapter of Dr. Pennock’s book, he describes the necessity of skepticism in science. This kind of skepticism entails being willing to question anything to prove it right or wrong, doubt the claims of authority (meaning recognizing that a rule or theory that someone makes where their only supporting material is the idea that their authority gives them the right to make such claims is not accurate), and being critical of one’s self since we all make mistakes. Skepticism in this light relates to curiosity since it allows for truthful evidence to be made and satisfy one’s curiosity, not fool it with false claims. Dr. Pennock also describes though how skepticism can become a crippling factor for scientists instead of a benefit, as shown with his examples of Galileo and McClintock , and therefore an important type of skepticism that scientists often use that does not become dogmatic is objectivity. Even before taking this class, I knew this is a valuable piece of scientific virtue since I have seen it in nearly all scientists. This notion to question everything is not only one of the main foundations of the purpose of science, which is to uncover all natural truths, but it also is one of the main driving factors that has allowed science to advance. If scientists just accepted every theory, we would still likely be living in an era that believes that spontaneous generation is true, proteins house the genetic make-up of cells, and that the earth is flat. Personally, I think that skepticism should be a virtue that everyone should have and not just scientists, though not everyone may need the same amount of skepticism as scientists. As a millennial, I see every day on social media people believing and spreading falsehoods mainly because their friends shared it. Specific examples that come to mind are a video article about a new technology that allows people to digitally send lemonade to others (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G1P201iFUY) and a gif that says that kinesin moving a vesicle is actually “happiness” being moved in your brain (http://truegif.com/pictures/gif/12334.gif). If people were a little more skeptical about what they see online or hear from others, then falsehoods like these would stop getting spread around.

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