Most important piece of scientific knowledge

[nitsuj]

Yes, more. All there is to know.

Yea I agree, I was just being a jackass. but I do need to subtract "All there is to know", HA "they" wish! (and me too)

 

[nitsuj]

Keep yourself and hands clean, observe sanitation in yourself, your food and water.

"The devils in the details" came to mind.

 

[tade]

Keep yourself and hands clean, observe sanitation in yourself, your food and water.

I think many modern-day humans still need to be reminded of this.

 

[tade]

"The devils in the details" came to mind.

Don't make another post, otherwise you'll go over the lucky number.

 

[tade]

One of the things that stopped science for many hundreds years was the fact that experiments were considered unnecessary. So I would go with something like "scientific method & the nature is always right" - but I agree that first, it can be abused, second, you need a critical mass for things to get started.

Was it Plato who advocated lying in bed and thinking instead of performing experiments? And Aristotle was the young hotshot who believed otherwise?

"The two divergent views" (I.e. the value of knowledge as an end in itself, against as a means to useful applications)

Some people do research for the first reason, in general, society wants it to be done for the second reason.

In addition, Einstein said "Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition".


Speaking of practicality, the LHC costs 9 billion USD, how did they manage to get the European governments to finance it? Especially given Europe's current state of affairs.

 

[mfb]

in general, society wants it to be done for the second reason.

Not always, and the society does not make direct decisions about big science projects.

The LHC produces useful applications. Win-win situation for all.

 

[tade]

Not always, and the society does not make direct decisions about big science projects.

The LHC produces useful applications. Win-win situation for all.

Like the huge computer network required? I wonder how much funding it still receives as of now. Most European governments would have probably classified it as low priority due to the economic crisis.

 

[mfb]

The huge computer network and various software developments, the high-tech particle detectors, data analysis methods, radiation hard components, ...
Funding is sufficient to run or improve the accelerator and the detectors, and the planned upgrades get enough money to proceed, too.