I love a good busted myth better than anybody, and the one for today is:
Glass is not a fluid. Or a liquid. It doesn’t flow downward, not even very slowly. Which I had thought was the case for all these years.
Scratch that one off the list! One more false belief I am no longer bound to. I think I learn most when I unlearn.
11 August 2006 at 5:16 am
Read recently on a blog:
KNOWING IS THE GREATEST BARRIER TO LEARNING
I’m never sure of what I know so I don’t usually fall in this trap.
11 August 2006 at 7:13 am
Egad, that’s true.
Or, um, I think it might be.
Science is really an uncertain path, isn’t it? You can only say, “This is what the evidence says, though this view is subject to revision as more data comes in.” But this is more accurate than blind certainty.
I’ve really had to learn not to get attached to ideas. I’m not very good at that.
11 August 2006 at 7:18 am
Oh man, I loved that little fact about glass. Now what? I agree with May though, if you already know it, then sometimes it can be hard to see what it really is.
11 August 2006 at 12:08 pm
Actually, now that I have been reflecting about the quotation, I have come to the conclusion that it has proved true for me at least on the personal level. I used to say: “that’s a wrong thing to do, I’ll never do it” just to realize afterwards that it was instead something I needed to experience.
As regards “science” (which is, broadly speaking, my field of work), I would say that I am never too sure neither of the method nor of the evidence. By “method” I mean the verification of all the hypotheses behind a procedure.
There is also a gender approach to this issue…men are always too certain of everything.
PS – Forgive improper use of words; my language is not English.
11 August 2006 at 1:26 pm
Are you certain?
11 August 2006 at 1:50 pm
Mmmhh, of this I am certain!
11 August 2006 at 2:39 pm
‘Certain’ is a weird word.
certain
certain
It looks like ‘surtayn‘.
I’m surtayn.
11 August 2006 at 3:09 pm
You don’t mind if I sent you an e-mail? It’s short.
11 August 2006 at 3:31 pm
May, had you not pointed out that English was not your first language I never would have noticed. 🙂
certain… ceertain… sirten… siiirrrtttiiiinn… damn phonetics!
I think this is a polish proverb or something: ‘To believe with certainty, we must begin by doubting.’
11 August 2006 at 4:08 pm
Thank you, Faerie, it is just that I feel kind of inadequate – not just in this respect.
11 August 2006 at 9:31 pm
How weird, MrP and I were talking about this only a couple of days ago and we decided that the ‘fact’ that glass is a liquid was probably untrue. It arose after having coming across this item on what is possibly the best blog in the entire universe:
http://www.kirchersociety.org/blog/?p=541