Positive findings are around twice as likely to be published as negative findings. This is a cancer at the core of evidence-based medicine.
Ben GoldacreRead
In evolution, as in all areas of science, our knowledge is incomplete. But the entire success of the scientific enterprise has depended on an insistence that these gaps be filled by natural explanations, logically derived from confirmable evidence. Because "intelligent design" theories are based on supernatural explanations, they can have nothing to do with science.
Interpretation
Scientific knowledge is always a work in progress, requiring evidence-based explanations rather than supernatural beliefs.
In this quote, Bruce Alberts emphasizes that science relies on empirical evidence and logical reasoning to fill gaps in knowledge regarding evolution. He argues that the scientific enterprise fosters progress by adhering to a methodology grounded in natural explanations, and critiques 'intelligent design' theories for relying on supernatural explanations that do not align with scientific inquiry.
In practice
During a science symposium, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of evidence in scientific discussions.
Positive findings are around twice as likely to be published as negative findings. This is a cancer at the core of evidence-based medicine.
If you come from mathematics, as I do, you realize that there are many problems, even classical problems, which cannot be solved by computation alone.
Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability.
The very large brain that humans have, plus the things that go along with it - language, art, science - seemed to have evolved only once. The eye, by contrast, independently evolved 40 times. So, if you were to 'replay' evolution, the eye would almost certainly appear again, whereas the big brain probably wouldn't.
They [scientists of centuries past] call on God only from the lonely and precarious edge of incomprehension. Where they feel certain about their explanations, however, God gets hardly a mention.
All the scientists who are working on solving the problem of curing paralysis say that it won't do you any good if you don't keep your body in shape.
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