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
64
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
WhichofthefollowingisNOTtrueaccordingtothetext?Itcanbeinferredfromthepassagethat
Theauthorseemstobelievethat______.InputsasusedinthetextreferstoallofthefollowingExcept______.
Politicalcontroversyaboutthepublic-landpolicyoftheUnitedStatesbeganwiththeAmericaRevolution.(1)_____,evenbefore
Politicalcontroversyaboutthepublic-landpolicyoftheUnitedStatesbeganwiththeAmericaRevolution.(1)_____,evenbefore
TedKennedyismentionedinthefirstparagraphtoTheword"stoned"(line1,paragraph3)mostprobablymeans
Illiteracymaybeconsideredmoreasanabstractconceptthanacondition.WhenafamousEnglishwriterusedthe(1)_____overt
Thebiggestdemonstrationinagenerationisbeingassembledbymobilizingthepoweroftheweb,whichallowsanti-wargroupsto
WhyareChinesevocationalgradsinferiortotheirWesterncounterparts?BymentioningtheproblemsofChinesevocationaleduca
Modernliberalopinionissensitivetoproblemsofrestrictionoffreedomandabuseofpower.(1)_____,manyholdthatamancan
Modernliberalopinionissensitivetoproblemsofrestrictionoffreedomandabuseofpower.(1)_____,manyholdthatamancan
随机试题
可引起肾素分泌增多的因素有
女性,27岁,2小时前被人用水果刀刺伤右侧胸壁,呈现进行性加重的呼吸困难,发绀,休克。体格检查:右侧胸壁皮下气肿,胸廓饱满,呼吸音消失,叩诊呈鼓音。胸穿时,针芯被自动推出。此病人出现严重呼吸循环功能紊乱的机制是
右半结肠癌引起的梗阻乙状结肠急性扭转属
槐花散的功用是()
可与氯化锶反应生成黑色沉淀的是
糖尿病急性并发症包括
某宾馆地下室设可供80名员工使用的男、女浴室各一问,最高日定额为80L/(人.d),共有间隔淋浴器10个,洗脸盆4个,浴室废水流入集水池由自动控制的排水泵即时提升排出,则废水集水池最小有效容积应为()。
设备安装施工程序中精度检测是检测设备、零部件之间的相对位置误差,如()。
对于租金的计算方法中,()是在租赁资产的设备货价或概算成本上再加上一个特定的比率来计算租金。
Afterthebirthofmysecondchild,Igotajobatarestaurant.Havingworkedwithanexperienced【C1】______forafewdays,Iwa
最新回复
(
0
)