Scientific discovery is the process of generating new hypotheses that fit or explain existing data sets. It also involves constructing theories and making testable conclusions from them.
A slew of recent discoveries underscore the importance of scientific exploration, including artificial intelligence-powered digital twins that are revolutionizing clean energy systems by optimizing wind, solar, and nuclear power. Scientists have even used a new method to discover the bones of theropod dinosaurs that were previously thought to be three to five meters in body length.
In the last 10 years, scientists have sequenced ancient DNA to reconstruct the genomes of humans from 4,000-year-old hair preserved in permafrost in Greenland. In doing so, they have revealed more about the physical traits and blood type of these early human ancestors than ever before. They have also used the same technology to sequence the genome of a Siberian woolly mammoth, which is the oldest intact mammal genome ever discovered.
Finally, in February 2016, astronomers at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory uncovered primordial gravitational waves—ripples in space-time resulting from the collision of two black holes—which were first predicted by Einstein in 1915. These new observations are the most compelling proof yet that our universe is a fabric of space-time warped by mass, as Einstein suggested.
Philosophical discussions of scientific discovery have varied greatly, from the narrow view promoted by Francis Bacon in his natural history Sylva Sylvarum and comprehensive work on human learning De Augmentis Scientiarium to more liberal views like Thomas Kuhn’s account of paradigm changes (Kuhn 1970 [1962]). Ultimately, however, most philosophical discussion about scientific discovery has focused on how to identify and describe a general pattern of inquiry.
About the Author
