Necessary And Desirable

Scientists, like other human beings, have their hopes and fears, their passions and despondencies — and their strong emotions may sometimes interrupt the course of clear thinking and sound practice.  But science is also self-correcting.  The most fundamental axioms and conclusions may be challenged.  The prevailing hypotheses must survive confrontation with observation.  Appeals to authority are impermissible.  The steps in a reasoned argument must be set out for all to see.  Experiments must be reproducible.
The history of science is full of cases where previously accepted theories and hypotheses have been entirely overthrown, to be replaced by new ideas that more adequately explain the data.  While there is an understandable psychological inertia — usually lasting about one generation — such revolutions in scientific thought are widely accepted as a necessary and desirable element of scientific progress.  Indeed, the reasoned criticism of a prevailing belief is a service to the proponents of that belief;  if they are incapable of defending it, they are well advised to abandon it.  This self-questioning and error-correcting aspect of the scientific method is its most striking property, and sets it off from many other areas of human endeavor where credulity is the rule.
—    Carl Sagan
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On This Day In:
2022	Wake Up Call For November 2022
2021	And It Will Be Here Last
	Still Goode 40 Years Later (Johnny B. Goode)
2020	Necessary And Desirable
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2019	The Far Side
2018	Hold On
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2017	Why Don’t You Tell Us What You Really Think?
2016	Discontent
2015	Do You Know Me?
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2014	Tough Journalism
2013	Things I’ve Learned
2012	Abstainer, n.
2011	Rain, Rain, Rain
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2009	End the mistakes…

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A Self-Correcting Process

There are many hypotheses in science that are wrong.  That’s perfectly alright;  it’s the aperture to finding out what’s right.  Science is a self-correcting process.  To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny.
―     Carl Sagan
From his TV Show:  “Cosmos“
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On This Day In:
2023	Given The Option
2022	Remember
2021	Now You’re 31…
	Versions: (Father And Son)  (My Way – Presley & Sinatra)
2020	Make A Fuss
2019	Hopefully, You’re Learning To Forgive
2018	Enjoy The Sunsets As Well As The Sunrises
2017	Enjoy
2016	I Got A Feeling
2015	Fiction Leading To History
2014	A Self-Correcting Process
2013	None But He Knows
2012	99% Are Demanding
2011	All In The Family
	Take Your Pick

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