EH 15 - Science

"The difficulty is that the sciences can apprehend only the repeatable."

Fred Reed discusses science - Fred is irreverent on everything. Dr. Lenny usually agrees with Fred. Dr. Lenny thinks that Fred is just not politically correct, but only because of the politically. Today he castigates scientists and denials of reality.

Dr. Lenny calls this phenomena : reproducibility mainstreaming. At each point in the process that people look at the picture, they make a value assessment as to whether things are working (hopefully by measuring something) and then make process adjustments to make the system work 'properly'. Repeating measurements to determine accuracy and precision falls apart when the field hands try to see that the data is reproduced in the field. In the field - just write down the numbers and continue - do not think about what the numbers means or if they are correct - except to the extent that you've calibrated the instruments against some measureable standard before using them.
Science needs reproducibility over large numbers of repetitions, not by limiting the measured fields. Small science, done many times, by many people with many techniques, then compared and statistically sorted. Bell shaped curves do have components that lie in the lower probability regions.
The key is in the measurement. You alter things when you measure them. Think about how your measurement affects your process and then you begin to see how things work. Sciences are too mated to models that happen to work. Few of us think, we assume. Bad change. Join Dr. Lenny and Fred and a few others - Start thinking.