To advance science we need to think about the impossible | New Scientist - 0 views
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Science sets out what we think is true – but when it gets stuck, it’s time to explore what we think isn’t
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science has always advanced in small steps, paving the way for occasional leaps. But sometimes fact-collecting yields nothing more than a collection of facts; no revelation follows. At such times, we need to step back from the facts we know and imagine alternatives: in other words, to ask “what if?”
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That was how Albert Einstein broke the bind in which physics found itself in the early 20th century. His conception of a scenario that received wisdom deemed impossible – that light’s speed is always the same, regardless of how you look at it – led to special relativity and demolished what we thought we knew about space and time.
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Despite its dependence on hard evidence, science is a creative discipline. That creativity needs nurturing, even in this age of performance targets and impact assessments. Scientist need to flex their imaginations, too.
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“Let us dare to dream,” the chemist August Kekulé once suggested, “and then perhaps we may learn the truth.”
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Physics isn’t the only field that might benefit from a judicious dose of what-iffery. Attempts to understand consciousness are also just inching forward