When the wrong question is being asked, it usually turns out to be because the right question is too difficult. Scientists ask questions they can answer. That is, it is often the case that the operations of a science are not a consequence of the problematic of that science, but that the problematic is induced by the available means.
Interpretation
Difficult questions often lead to simpler inquiries that can be answered, making researchers more likely to pursue those instead.
Richard Lewontin's quote highlights that when scientists confront challenging issues, they tend to redirect their focus to questions that are more manageable, avoiding the complexity of the original problem. This leads to the idea that the limitations in how science operates are often shaped not just by the problems themselves, but by the tools and methods available to researchers, thereby altering the direction and depth of scientific inquiry.
In practice
In a lecture on scientific inquiry, to illustrate the importance of formulating the right questions.
The primary problem is not to provide the public with the knowledge of how far it is to the nearest star and what genes are made of .. Rather, the problem is to get them to reject irrational and supernatural explanations of the world, the demons that exist only in their imaginations, and to accept a social and intellectual apparatus, Science, as the only begetter of truth.
We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism... We cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.
Global warming isn't a prediction. It is happening.
Nobody spends any money on smallpox unless they worry about a bio-terrorist recreating it.
It was basic research in the photoelectric field-in the photoelectric effect that would one day lead to solar panels. It was basic research in physics that would eventually produce the CAT scan. The calculations of today's GPS satellites are based on the equations that Einstein put to paper more than a century ago.
Nuclear accidents anywhere can affect people everywhere.
Just as Mars - a desert planet - gives us insights into global climate change on Earth, the promise awaits for bringing back to life portions of the Red Planet through the application of Earth Science to its similar chemistry, possibly reawakening its life-bearing potential.
We already have the statistics for the future: the growth percentages of pollution, overpopulation, desertification. The future is already in place.
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