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[Marie McHarry <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 10:05 AM, Robert Walton <waltonrp AT gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The global warming thread makes me think of something that's been on
> my mind lately. That is that scientists talk of their theories as if
> they were fact. It's annoying, and I think that sceintists should
> learn from the mistakes of their past. (The earth is not flat.)

Some theories have lots and lots of facts to back them up. Others, not
so much. Evolution has a lot, climate change quite a bit. Still, it's
the scientists who keep their minds flexible who make the big
discoveries. When I was at the U of I, there was a fellow in the
microbiology department who was considered to be not quite on the same
page as everyone else. He was a terrific teacher, something you don't
always get from a full professor in a big school like U of I. He's
famous for discovering a life form that is neither bacteria or a
member of the eucaryota. His name is Carl Woese, and he's an example
of what you can discover if you keep your options open.

Marie