We often imagine scientists hustling over a microscope in a white lab coat or as geniuses scribbling formulas onto a blackboard. As these stereotypes are inaccurate, why would we expect that the common understanding of how Science works is different?
Stuart Firestein’s book’s title, Failure: Why Science Is So Successful, already suggests the counterintuitive importance of failure for scientific progress. But there is more:
I have made a list of some of the things I learned in graduate school about science.
Questions are more important than facts.
Answers or facts are temporary; data, hypotheses (models) are provisional.
Failure happens … a lot.
Patience is a requirement; there is no substitute for time.
Occasionally you get lucky—hopefully you recognize it.
Things don’t happen in the linear or narrative way that you read about in papers or textbooks.
The smooth “Arc of Discovery” is a myth; science stumbles along.
If there is free food, get there early.