While it is quite reasonable for scientists to be skeptical of new ideas that do not fit within the accepted realm of scientific knowledge, the best science often emerges from situations where results carefully obtained do not fit within the accepted paradigms.
Interpretation
Scientific progress often originates from questioning existing beliefs and paradigms.
This quote by Stanley B. Prusiner highlights the importance of skepticism in science while also emphasizing that groundbreaking discoveries frequently arise when empirical evidence contradicts established theories. It suggests that being open to ideas that challenge the status quo is essential for scientific advancement.
In practice
In a presentation about scientific breakthroughs, one might say, 'As Stanley B. Prusiner noted, sometimes the best science emerges from ideas that challenge the accepted norms.'
People often ask me why I persisted in doing research on a subject that was so controversial. I frequently respond by telling them that only a few scientists are granted the great fortune to pursue topics that are so new and different that only a small number of people can grasp the meaning of such discoveries initially.
The range of variation in the female far exceeds the range of variation in the male.
It would be wrong to assume that one must stay with a research programme until it has exhausted all its heuristic power, that one must not introduce a rival programme before everybody agrees that the point of degeneration has probably been reached.
Development of Western science is based on two great achievements: the invention of the formal logical system (in Euclidean geometry) by the Greek philosophers, and the discovery of the possibility to find out causal relationships by systematic experiment (during the Renaissance). In my opinion, one has not to be astonished that the Chinese sages have not made these steps. The astonishing thing is that these discoveries were made at all.
Science is a human activity, and the best way to understand it is to understand the individual human beings who practise it. Science is an art form and not a philosophical method. The great advances in science usually result from new tools rather than from new doctrines. ... Every time we introduce a new tool, it always leads to new and unexpected discoveries, because Nature's imagination is richer than ours.
What was most significant about the lunar voyage was not that men set foot on the moon but that they set eye on the earth.
Any objective look at what science has to say about climate change ought to be sufficient to persuade reasonable people that the climate is changing and that humans are responsible for a substantial part of that - and that these changes are doing harm and will continue to do more harm unless we start to reduce our emissions.
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