I was reading an article on the discovery of salty ice that may be present on exoplanets. The head scientist prefaced the discovery saying ““It’s rare nowadays to have fundamental discoveries in science”. I know she is basically saying that big science discoveries aren’t made anymore. All of the major discoveries have been made already. But that doesn’t feel right. Is she correct?
Here is the article for all those interested.
https://www.washington.edu/news/2023/02/21/newly-discovered-form-of-salty-ice-could-exist-on-surface-of-extraterrestrial-moons/
In: 19
She isn’t necessarily saying that big scientific discoveries aren’t being made. She’s saying scientific discoveries that are new and contradict decades or even centuries of established science aren’t as common – a lot of what we discover is built upon what we already know or think we know in one field or another.
In this study they discovered water and salt interacting in a way we never really thought possible – this has the potential to change how we view chemical and physical processes at a very basic level when before we thought we knew most of ehat there was to know about salt and water.
Fundamental means basic core principles, so she’s saying it’s rare to come across basic tenets that are still undiscovered because modern science has studied most of the obvious stuff already.
So like the properties of water are well-understood on earth but when mixed with other fluids and subjected to unusual conditions (like in space), we may find a totally different set of fundamental properties, which is what she’s saying.
The more we know about science, the harder it is to make a new fundamental discovery that changes everything. It still happens. But there are a high volume of small, incremental discoveries that are the norm.
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One of the things that has to happen it everything has to be peer reviewed. The sad thing about science is that it’s still done by humans with human emotions, and by that, I mean it’s political. One of my professors I did research with in chemistry was black balled by the scientific community because he disproved a popular theory on cold fusion.
Aliens come along and say ..’ You been doing Physics all wrong ..lol..’ 👽 ‘
‘Much easier this way ,and sooo much quicker’
Learning that your mum used to play tennis or that she dislikes chocolate is a discovery.
Learning that you’re adopted or that your mum is a robot is a fundamental discovery
Fundamental discoveries turn previous understanding upside down and changes many aspects of what you thought you knew.
Science doesn’t have fundamental discoveries very often anymore.
It means the same thing i heard someone in business school say once, that all products have basically already been invented, now all that’s left is who is the best marketer…
This was said before the first iphone came out, for perspective
Things like “Earth = round”, and “gravity pull down” have been figured out.
Really basic building blocks of science that are absolutely necessary for more advanced discoveries.
It is always rare for there to be truly fundamental scientific discoveries and yet throughout history whenever the ‘know it alls’ start claiming that everything important has already been discovered that’s when there will be a scientific discovery that will blow everyones mind. Currently there are way too many politically minded ‘scientists’ who have absolutely no imagination. They hold back science by using peer review to protect their own careers while censoring any ideas or research that disagrees or challenges their own beliefs. The main reason why fundamental scientific discoveries have become so rare is because anyone who dares to present sound revolutionary research will surely be ostracized by this current science community that is intolerant towards revolutionary ideas. Sadly science has become more like a religious cult than a place where highly intelligent and imaginative people can have fun discovering the workings of our reality.
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