- Hans Christian von Baeyer
All progress in both science and
education
depends on the questions asked. The above quote,
perhaps more than any other that I can immediately recall, reflects
how I feel about the way progress is made in science. Experimental
observations raise questions that must be addressed theoretically.
Theoretical models raise questions that must be tested
experimentally. In both cases, it is necessary to extract from either
the theory or the experiment results and conclusions - which are
always answers to the questions asked. Without the carefully
formulated questions, little would be gained from either theory or
experiment. Progress in science ultimately involves an interplay
between theory and experiment - all based on the questions asked of
both.
There is a difference between
studying
science and doing science. The process of doing science
is much like assembling a jigsaw puzzle but a puzzle without the
boundary "edge" pieces - or even a picture to guide you, although you
may be convinced that it will make sense as you assemble it. (One of
the thema of science is that the universe is ultimately
understandable.) You proceed hoping that you can obtain all the
pieces, but do not know how many pieces that will be nor the size or
shape of the completed puzzle. Indeed, you suspect that the puzzle
may never even be completed (although small parts of it may form a
coherent picture), but will continue to grow and change - and reveal
new surprises and insights as it develops.
To do such a puzzle, you must examine
each piece
carefully, learning its shape and colors and patterns and symmetries,
turning it over and seeing it from different perspectives. Then you
must look to see how it connects to other pieces - whether it adds to
some fragmented part of the existing picture or whether instead it
seems to open new vistas. For no matter how familiar you are with any
one piece, no matter how well you know and understand it, it will
still make very little real sense until it is seen in the context of
other pieces that surround it. Then as pieces begin fitting together,
they will create a larger more understandable pattern or picture.
Even as small areas of the puzzle are completed, those areas will
truly be understood only when they can be seen in relation to the
surrounding areas. Each part of the picture contributes to the
overall understanding of the puzzle. And sometimes, when the
connections are made, your perception of the importance of any one
piece may dramatically change - the piece that you thought you
understood well, may play some very different role in the overall
picture.
When you study science, you are covering
ground
that others have already covered. The logical connections are already
understood by others - and your study of the material involves making
those connections for yourself - to form a coherent picture in your
own mind. You must be willing to explore - take an idea or question
and examine it, see where it came from, turn it over and look
underneath it, pull it apart if necessary and examine its components.
Then reassemble it and see how it fits with other ideas. It too is
much like doing the jigsaw puzzle described above. The difference
between studying and doing science, however, is that the picture you
are trying to assemble has been done by others - and hence there is a
guide picture. But just looking at the guide picture is no substitute
for assembling the puzzle yourself. The discovery - in fact, the
excitement of the discovery - is very personal. That others
already understand the ideas and how they go together does not
detract from the value of your own quest to
understand.