How Do We Know That Science Works?

Here’s a question I’ve gotten several times since starting this blog a few days ago (and several dozen times over the last few years):

“Scientists make a lot of noise about being ‘objective’ and using data to determine the truth, but at the end of the day, science has an untested — and untestable — core belief: that we can learn the nature of reality by actively studying the physical world. So doesn’t this mean that science is a form of faith, no different from any other system of belief?”

Short answer: yes to the first part, no to the second part.

Long answer…

Read more "How Do We Know That Science Works?"

Faking It

What’s this picture?

The easy answer is that it’s a computer-generated image from the Millennium Simulation of what we think the universe looks like on the largest scales. That’s not quite true, though. It’s certainly an image from the Millennium Simulation, but it’s not what we think the universe “looks” like, at least not literally; those luminous dots indicate dark matter, not galaxies, meaning they’re not made of anything that actually gives off light of any kind. More importantly, it’s not what we think our universe looks like because it’s not a map of our universe. It’s a map of a fake universe, a wholly simulated construction living inside a computer…

Read more "Faking It"