How do the tools and techniques of science help reduce uncertainty?
Experimentation is a hallmark of science, and experiments are basically exercises in asking questions: “What happens if we do this to that?” You pose a question, and you propose a procedure that you hope will answer the question unambiguously. Occasionally you’ll have something that turns out to be extraordinarily unexpected—the kind of experimental result that makes people say, “I don’t believe it!” And that leads to another group testing it. Science has a way of self-correcting. If the experiment can’t be repeated, and different groups can never get the same results, then slowly, the original idea is set aside as unrepeatable. Repeatability is a central tenet of science. If something is really true, then more than one person can discover or demonstrate it. Pollack was born into a Nebraska farm family and became interested in earth sciences in college at Cornell University, where he became fascinated by the fossils in the dramatic gorges of the Finger Lakes region.
