The Good Thing About Science

I bought a new T-shirt the other day. It had a quote on the front: “The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it“. Discuss.

At a gut level, I’m happy with the quote. It chimes with me. I bought the T-shirt after all. But let’s analyse it in a bit more detail. Words are the key thing. They mean different things to different people, especially when we are considering scientists and laymen. The important words here seem to me to be ‘true’ and ‘believe’.

I’m old enough to keep a battered copy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary near my desk. The first definition for ‘true’ is “in accordance with fact or reality, not false or erroneous“. That’s a bit of a problem for science because our understanding of what is true in science is actually just a snapshot at any particular time. Newton’s laws of motion were understood as being in accordance with fact and reality for many years until Einstein showed that they are not ‘true’ in some rather extreme circumstances. The second dictionary definition is “in accordance with reason or correct principles … not merely apparent“. Now, that’s better: it steps back from the simple idea of a fact; it digs a bit deeper into the meaning. Looking further on in the dictionary, there is a definition of the word as applied to a wheel, post or beam: “in correct position, balanced or upright or level“. As a metaphor for the scientific approach, I like that.

But what about ‘believe’? The dictionary has: “have faith in, trust word of (person); put trust in truth of a statement“. But it seems to me that this says nothing about the basis for having that faith or trust. Is it based on evidence? And does the person involved have qualifications or experience that lead you to trust him? I would be prepared to say that I ‘believe’ in the theory of evolution. I am not an expert in the field but I think I can form an opinion based on the evidence available and I trust the word of scientists such as Steve Jones, based on hearing him lecture and reading his books. But there is another sort of belief, based on historical teaching and sacred books. That’s a big issue and I’m not going there – not yet at any rate.

I had formed my views before I discovered that the originator of the quote is Neil deGrasse Tyson, an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, and science communicator. I thank him for giving me something to think about and I’m still happy with the quote, although I think we need to remember that it is a bit more nuanced than it appears at first. And I’ll carry on wearing the T-shirt.

Afterword: I found this post difficult. I usually type straight in with only a minor bit of tidying up afterwards. But I spent a long time playing about with this and even when I thought I had finished I still felt some unease. I now realise why. Does the quote sound just a little bit smug? Like, “OK, you guys may not believe in science but we know it’s true“. I’m sure that Tyson did not mean it that way but it could just alienate someone who was sitting on the fence with their trust for science. And we wouldn’t want to do that, would we?

Voodoo and DNA

One of the things about getting old … No, I’m not going to write much about getting old though I have been thinking I should explain some time why I chose the name for this blog and I suppose I could cover being old then. But that’s for another day. One of the things about getting old is that your fingernails get more brittle. (Hm, an interesting thought there. Your toenails seem to get tougher as you get old. But leave that for now.) I’ve certainly noted it with my fingernails. I used to leave them reasonably but not excessively long – useful for picking up small objects. But if I do that now even a slight knock against a door, say, causes them to crack.
Getting to the point, I was cutting my nails just now and being a tidy individual I was picking up the bits to dispose of them neatly. That reminded me of stories about voodoo practitioners who claim to be able to exert control over a person if they can get hold of some body part such as nail cuttings or hair. My mind then ran on to thinking that you can extract DNA from hair, certainly, and I assume also from nail clippings. Analysing the results of that does give you in some sense power over people in that you can identify them if they are on a DNA register (now that’s something worth a blog post) or that you can prove that they have been at a certain location, a crime scene for example.
If I were writing for a cheap newpaper I could say that these old voodoo priests knew something that we modern people have only recently discovered. But I am a rational scientist so I think that it’s bollocks really.

PS While writing this I put ‘voodoo’ into a search engine to check the spelling and was offered the chance to purchase ‘voodoo dolls’ online. Interesting…

A Blinding Trip

The giant Ferris Wheel, the London Eye, has been in the news recently with a change of sponsor. That reminded me of an experience a few years ago. (I am of an age when time becomes somewhat elastic, so ‘few’ probably means ‘about ten’.)
I was attending an international conference held in a London hotel in early December (I give the date so you can imagine dark evenings and rather cold weather). A colleague, who was also a friend, was attending and it was arranged that our respective wives should join us for the weekend before the conference started. (That raises all sorts of issues about the role of women, the possibility of a patronising attitude, etc. I could come back to that in a later post but just be assured that both wives are intelligent people, quite capable of holding their own in any company.)
I’m getting distracted. We had decided to go out one evening for a ‘flight’ on the London Eye followed by a meal in a nearby restaurant. I don’t know if the ride is still called a ‘flight’. It was sponsored by British Airways then.
The hotel where the conference was based was sufficiently on the outskirts of London to offer reasonable car parking so we had driven there. I had made the classic mistake of driving off in a nice warm car and forgetting to take a coat. However, I did have my bright yellow hi-vis jacket which lives in the boot of the car so I wore that for our evening out. (I can recommend the experience of walking around in a hi-vis jacket. People get out of your way and passing motorists slow down.)
We had our flight on the London Eye, with nice views of London at night, the four of us in a pod with about eight others, mostly foreign tourists. Just before the end of the flight there was an announcement that we should group together on one side of the pod to have our photograph taken. I finished up, in my hi-vis jacket, right in the middle of the group.
After the trip finished, we found a row of computer screens, each with one of the recent photographs, and a desk where you could order copies of your group. They seemed like a nice souvenir, apart from our picture which was dominated by a bright yellow jacket on an almost totally dark background. We left quickly before anyone realised it was me that had spoiled their sourvenir.

Return of the Cranes

The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) have their headquarters at Slimbridge, quite near me. I’m a member and I go there when I can find time. I’m not a dedicated birder, and certainly not a twitcher, but I do enjoy watching birds and learning a bit about them at the same time.
WWT have been running a project to re-introduce the Eurasian Crane to the UK. They hatched eggs at Slimbridge, taking great care that the young birds never saw humans (so as not to get imprinted on them). When they were mature they were put in a van and taken some 50 miles to the Somerset Levels. I think they were kept in captivity for a while but they were released when they had settled.
At Slimbridge recently, I saw five beautiful Eurasian Cranes. How so? Well the story is that, after release in Somerset, some of them promptly flew back to Slimbridge. But how did they know where to go? I understand that they travelled in a closed van. I’m not a zoologist so perhaps someone who knows more about it than me can explain.
Peter Matthiessen wrote a wonderful book about Cranes*. It’s probably not one for a birder – it reads more like poetry than ornithology. We had a tidy up of books recently and I can’t find my copy. I don’t think I sent it to the charity shop but, if I did, I hope somebody is getting as much pleasure out of it as I did.

* The Birds of Heaven: Travels with Cranes, Peter Matthiessen