首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
Scientists are supposed to change their minds.【F1】Having adopted their views on scientific questions based on an objective evalu
Scientists are supposed to change their minds.【F1】Having adopted their views on scientific questions based on an objective evalu
admin
2013-08-15
68
问题
Scientists are supposed to change their minds.【F1】
Having adopted their views on scientific questions based on an objective evaluation of empirical evidence, they are expected to willingly, even eagerly, abandon cherished beliefs when new evidence undermines them.
So it is remarkable that so few of the essays in a new book in which scientists answer the question in the title, "What Have You Changed Your Mind About?" express anything like this ideal.
Many of the changes of mind are just changes of opinion or an evolution of values. One contributor, a past supporter of manned spaceflight, now thinks it’s pointless, while another no longer has moral objections to cognitive enhancement through drugs. Other changes of mind have to do with broken predictions, such as that computer intelligence would soon rival humans’.【F2】
Rare, however, are changes of mind by scientists identified with either side of a controversial issue.
There is no one who rose to fame arguing that a disease is caused by sticky brain plaques and who has now been convinced by evidence that the plaques are mostly innocent bystanders, not crimes. But really, we shouldn’t be surprised.【F3】
Advocates of a particular viewpoint, especially if their reputation is based on the accuracy of that viewpoint, cling to it like a shipwrecked man to floats.
Studies that undermine that position, they say, are fatally flawed.
In truth, no study is perfect, so it would be crazy to abandon an elegant, well supported theory because one new finding undermines it.【F4】
But it’s fascinating how scientists with an intellectual stake in a particular side of a debate tend to see flaws in studies that undermine their dearly held views, and to interpret and even ignore "facts" to fit their views.
No wonder the historian Thomas Kuhn concluded almost 50 years ago that a scientific paradigm falls down only when the last of its powerful advocates dies. The few essays in which scientists do admit they were wrong—and about something central to their reputation therefore stand out.【F5】
Physicist Marcelo Gleiser of Dartmouth breaks ranks with almost every physicist since Einstein, and with his own younger self, in now doubting that the laws of nature can be unified in a single elegant formulation.
Gleiser has written dozens of papers proposing routes to the unification of gravity and quantum mechanics through everything from superstrings to extra dimensions, but now concedes that "all attempts so far have failed. " Unification may be esthetically appealing, but it’s not how nature works.
【F5】
选项
答案
达特茅斯大学的物理学家马塞罗·格雷泽现在通过对“自然法则可以归纳为一条简洁的公式”的观点提出质疑,与爱因斯坦之后几乎所有物理学家分道扬镳了,也与年轻时的他自己划清了界限。
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/DbO4777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
The"dawnofthedemocratizationoftheTVandfilmbusiness"probablymeans______.Whichofthefollowingcontributedmostto
WhichofthefollowingreflectsthechangeofCatholicChurch?The"reconfigurationplan"(Para.4)probablyrefersto
WhichofthefollowingreflectsthechangeofCatholicChurch?Therelationshipbetweenthefirsttwoparagraphscanbedescrib
Politicalcontroversyaboutthepublic-landpolicyoftheUnitedStatesbeganwiththeAmericaRevolution.(1)_____,evenbefore
Politicalcontroversyaboutthepublic-landpolicyoftheUnitedStatesbeganwiththeAmericaRevolution.(1)_____,evenbefore
LoggingisnotbannedchieflybecauseAccordingtosomescientists,Hempsarepreferabletotreeschieflybecause
LoggingisnotbannedchieflybecauseCanadianforestswillnotfacedestructionif
Inmostpartsoftheworld,climatechangeisaworryingsubject.NotsoinCalifornia.AtarecentgatheringofgreenLUMINARIE
Theword"caste"(paragraph1)mostprobablymeansThatfireantspreyonbollwormsandbudwormsismentionedtoshowthat
Modernliberalopinionissensitivetoproblemsofrestrictionoffreedomandabuseofpower.(1)_____,manyholdthatamancan
随机试题
甲公司和乙公司均为增值税一般纳税人,适用的增值税税率均为17%,适用的所得税税率均为25%,所得税均采用资产负债表债务法核算。甲公司和乙公司有关资料如下:(1)甲公司2×14年12月31日应收乙公司账款的账面余额为1170万元,已计提坏账准备17
在实际和潜在购买者总数中所占比重不大,但他们所消费的商品数量在商品消费总量中所占比重却很大,这种使用者属于()
社会主义初级阶段,中国共产党与各民主党派合作的组织形式是
患儿,男,3岁,持续高热不退,体温最高41℃,查体:心率120~130次/分,呼吸55~72次/分,三凹征,鼻翼翕动。遵医嘱用呼吸兴奋药物,突然出现烦躁不安,肌张力高,局部肌肉抽搐,考虑此患儿可能出现
法的适用
下列哪些情形中,行政诉讼案件由中级人民法院管辖?()
根据《水土保持法》的规定,建设项目中的水土保持设施,必须与主体工程建设项目()。
下列关于β值和标准差的表述中,正确的有()。
认识运动之所以要经过实践—认识—再实践—再认识的多次反复,是因为人类的认识能力有限。()
实行多元化市场战略是将出口额在世界各地市场平均分布。()
最新回复
(
0
)