{"id":862,"date":"2017-04-23T18:51:20","date_gmt":"2017-04-23T18:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/?p=862"},"modified":"2017-05-30T19:16:16","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T19:16:16","slug":"becausescience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/?p=862","title":{"rendered":"#becausescience"},"content":{"rendered":"

I took an on-line biomimicry course over the last few weeks via www.canvas.net<\/a> (take a look and see what\u2019s there for you). It was very interesting, a good refresher for me, got me outside in our strange-weather spring, and it forced me to re-engage in some critical study habits. I hope I continue to build on those rediscovered habits.<\/p>\n

It also exposed me to perspectives of students from all over the world, with different levels of interest, career growth, and curiosity. I think nearly 600 took\u00a0the course, though maybe one 1\/3 of that number finished from what I saw of the final posted projects. The efforts were very cool, and the ideas generated from paying a little bit of attention to nature were inspiring.<\/p>\n

But the explorations were not easy, nor even comfortable for some.<\/p>\n

One student commented that she feels biomimicry is a sort of pseudo-science. Her concern is that if we don\u2019t know what we are working toward, or it is not clear, and if the answers cannot be confirmed by established experts, then how is this science? My gut response is that this is precisely why it is science. Are we so comfortable and complacent in the world that we seem to absolutely control that we now think science consists solely of the answers already found? I think there are many, many people who\u00a0feel this way, and that is perhaps why we are in constant foolish debate over scientific facts of the current era\u2026if they are not facts that have serious yank in history then they cannot be true. Too many people think that science is already written.<\/p>\n

Science is the pursuit of truth, with high expectations for errors and missteps, yet also a high level of attention to correcting and to building on the knowledge gained from those errors. It is only through failure that we find the truths. The ideas are formed, theories created and tested, the information summed, data reviewed by peers, usually competitors in the scientific community, and then, only then, published. And, quite frankly, once the work is published it is again tested and explored and reassessed. Science is a world of continual improvement, lack of ego, and respect for the collaborative nature of innovation. I believe true scientists, no matter their realm of science, understand they are all in this together and that the work, even when not directly collaborative, is truly interdependent. I know no one who thinks their discoveries came\u00a0from the nothingness of \u201cscratch\u201d, and every scientist I know welcomes peer review and healthy, open challenges to the data, processes and results. And, when a solid 97% of the scientific community studying and working in the realm of climate science (for example) agree the work and projections are solid and usable, then it becomes the truth we can work with.<\/p>\n