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.
When somebody discovers something like the quadratic formula or the Pythagorean theorem, the convention in science is that he can't control that idea. He has to give it away. He publishes it. What's rewarded in science is dissemination of ideas.
In our skulls, we carry around 3 pounds of slimy, wet, greyish tissue, corrugated like crumpled toilet paper. You wouldn't think, to look at the unappetizing lump, that it was some of the most powerful stuff in the known universe.
It was our use of probability theory as logic that has enabled us to do so easily what was impossible for those who thought of probability as a physical phenomenon associated with "randomness". Quite the opposite; we have thought of probability distributions as carriers of information.
Human beings would split the atom and invent television, nylon, and instant coffee before they could figure out the age of their own planet.
It was unthinkable not long ago that a biologist or paleontologist would be at the same conference as an astrophysicist. Now we have accumulated so much data in each of these branches of science as it relates to origins that we have learned that no one discipline can answer questions of origins alone.
I could never have gone far in any science because on the path of every science the lion Mathematics lies in wait for you.
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