Most Important Thing In Science : Asking The Right Question

[Razwell]

Above all, the most important thing in science, the thing that gets everything started is asking the RIGHT questions. Isaac Newton did this better than anyone.

For example: asking what cheese is the moon made of and then conducting experiments to determine if it was Swiss, American or Provolone would get us nowhere.

 

[Pengwuino]

It's clearly made of American cheese.

 

[phinds]

Above all, the most important thing in science, the thing that gets everything started is asking the RIGHT questions. Isaac Newton did this better than anyone.

For example: asking what cheese is the moon made of and then conducting experiments to determine if it was Swiss, American or Provolone would get us nowhere.

I disagree. I take your point, and it is a good one, but I believe that the MOST important thing in science is a willingness to believe the evidence even if it contradicts your theory.

Even worse than asking what kind of cheese the moon is made of is continuing to believe it IS made of cheese even though your experiments tell you otherwise.

 

[Gnosis]

Above all, the most important thing in science, the thing that gets everything started is asking the RIGHT questions. Isaac Newton did this better than anyone.

While this is somewhat subjective, I found that Galileo Galilei asked far better questions and derived far more significant answers than Newton. Newton merely built upon that which Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler had already discovered. Reading the great work of Galileo was much more interesting than reading the great work of Newton, though to be fair, each provides numerous enlightening moments. Unfortunately, the greater of the multitude will never read these great works in their entirety, so they simply don't know what they're missing. I wish I had read these great works far sooner than I did. Galileo was quite brilliant in his manner of deductive reasoning and ingeniously resourceful.

 

[vsfoster]

Can you recommend some reading materials on Galileo please?