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.
I regard music therapy as a tool of great power in many neurological disorders -- Parkinson's and Alzheimer's -- because of its unique capacity to organize or reorganize cerebral function when it has been damaged.
In space there are countless constellations, suns and planets; we see only the suns because they give light; the planets remain invisible, for they are small and dark. There are also numberless earths circling around their suns.
If you go down through the horizon of a black hole, at the center you don't find a tunnel that leads you to some other place in the universe.
If we betake ourselves to the statistical method, we do so confessing that we are unable to follow the details of each individual case, and expecting that the effects of widespread causes, though very different in each individual, will produce an average result on the whole nation, from a study of which we may estimate the character and propensities of an imaginary being called the Mean Man.
My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings - what we sometimes call "mind" - are a consequence of its anatomy and physiology, and nothing more.
The kitchen's a laboratory, and everything that happens there has to do with science. It's biology, chemistry, physics. Yes, there's history. Yes, there's artistry. Yes, to all of that. But what happened there, what actually happens to the food is all science.
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