Phil Plait: The secret to scientific discoveries? Making mistakes
菲爾普萊特: 科學發現的秘密?犯錯
Phil Plait blogs at Bad Astronomy, where he deconstructs misconceptions and explores the wonder of the universe. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
of misconceptions about science --
及它到底是什麼。
is just a big old pile of facts.
科學只是一大堆古老的事實。
that's not even the goal of science.
那甚至不是科學的目的。
but it's not the goal.
但不是科學的目標。
is to understand objective reality
是要了解客觀的現實,
即以證據為基礎的方式。
is that people are flawed.
我們真的很擅長欺騙自己。
is a way of minimizing our own bias.
想辦法把我們自身偏見減到最小。
more than is probably useful,
is you want to observe something ...
嘿,我很納悶為什麼?」
with an idea that may explain it:
提出一種可能的解釋:
the colors from the ocean.
如果天空會反射海洋的顏色,
the ocean color,
in the middle of the country."
you leave Denver on a nice gray day,
你在一個灰暗的日子離開丹佛,
and the sky is gloriously blue.
向上看,天空非常藍。
think about how to test it
想想要如何檢定它,
to a different part of the country
is to talk to other people.
different perspectives,
save you a lot of money and a lot of time,
幫你省下很多時間與金錢,
就從這一岸飛到那一岸。
just to check the weather.
does a decent job but not a perfect job?
但不完美,該怎麼辦?
is you can modify it a little bit
this whole process again --
這整個過程——
you will hone this idea.
這個想法也會被不斷精煉。
by the scientific community,
evidence comes along.
is admitting when you're wrong.
是這個過程的一部分。
is that it's done by people,
就是它要由人來進行,
to do a really good job.
pretty well because of science.
要歸功於科學。
is that it's done by people,
就是它要由人來進行,
along with us when we investigate things.
我們還隨身帶了很多包袱。
and scientists are humans.
when we're studying science
當我們在試圖發展我們的論點時,
to develop our theses.
on Hubble Space Telescope,
哈伯太空望遠鏡做研究,
came to me with some data,
拿了一些資料來找我,
there may be a picture
another star in this data."
另一個恆星轉動的照片。」
of planets orbiting other stars yet,
繞著其他恆星轉動的照片,
if this thing were a planet or not.
這個東西到底是不是行星。
and stars are bright,
恆星是明亮的,
the signal out of this data
in a heavy metal concert --
聽見耳語一樣——
一個月的時間後,
couldn't do it.
我們無法確定那是不是行星。」
this is a planet or not."
follow-up observations with Hubble,
取得了後續的觀察,
or galaxy, something like that.
but that sucked.
但,那實在太鳥了。
we can't do this with the data we have."
我們用手上的資料是做不到的。」
showed we were wrong.
is doing their job correctly,
有把他們的工作做正確,
there's still more stuff out there --
but we love puzzles,
但我們喜歡解謎,
the biggest puzzle of them all.
no matter how you move it,
不論你怎麼移動它都不吻合,
when you have to let go of your idea
the bigger picture.
is admitting when you're wrong,
examples of this in science,
that had been plaguing astronomers
it seems special.
chemistry, thermodynamics for centuries,
天文學、物理學、化學、熱電學,
very important about it.
millions of other stars.
其他恆星沒有什麼不同。
in the "planet" I was looking for,
失敗的例子中提到的,
pretty clever people
of different techniques
並開始觀察恆星。
that were pretty interesting,
東西的細薄毛邊上。
of what they were able to detect.
it was shown to be wrong.
Andrew Lyne, pardon me --
對不起,是安德魯林恩——
orbiting another star.
繞著另一個恆星運轉。
that has previously exploded.
所留下的殘餘部分。
you would expect to find a planet,
我們最不會去找的地方就是這裡,
looked at this pulsar,
研究這個脈衡星,
of this planet as it orbited the pulsar.
而他們偵測到重力的拉力。
another star had been found ...
轉動的行星被找到了……
一大堆天文學家都對此發表意見,
commented on it,
and looked at their data
a very embarrassing mistake.
for some very subtle characteristics
this planet going around the pulsar.
繞行脈衝星的測量值。
account for it correctly,
Astronomical Society meeting,
of astronomers on the planet,
天文學家聚會上,
that he had made a mistake
for his honesty and his integrity.
is a man named Aleksander Wolszczan
是亞歷山大沃爾茲森,
didn't find a pulsar planet,
沒有找到脈衡行星,
orbiting a different pulsar.
繞著一個不同的脈衝星運轉。
and yeah, ours are real."
是的,我們的是真的。」
orbiting this pulsar
在繞行這個脈衝星,
exoplanet system ever found --
系外行星系統——
around a star more like the Sun,
之後再發現了一個。
orbiting an actual star.
在繞行一個真正的恆星。
數以千計的這類行星。
specifically designed to look for them.
這類行星用的天文台。
four planets orbiting another star.
四個行星繞行另一個恆星。
in the universe on two hands --
宇宙中所有已知行星——
there could be three, five, ten planets.
旁邊都可能有三、五、十個行星。
may outnumber stars in the galaxy.
行星的數量可能超過恆星。
and the observatories and the data;
因為有科學、有天文台、有資料;
who built the observatories,
並去承認錯誤,
build on their mistakes
以他們的錯誤為基礎,
our place is in the universe.
when it dares to be human.
就是它敢於當凡人。
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Phil Plait - AstronomerPhil Plait blogs at Bad Astronomy, where he deconstructs misconceptions and explores the wonder of the universe.
Why you should listen
Phil Plait is the Bad Astronomer. Not a bad astronomer, but a blogger for Slate who debunks myths and misconceptions about astronomy -- and also writes about the beauty, wonder and importance of fundamental research.
He worked for six years on the Hubble Space Telescope, and directed public outreach for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. He is a past president of the James Randi Educational Foundation, and was the host of Phil Plait's Bad Universe, a documentary series on the Discovery Channel.
Read more from Phil Plait in the Huffington Post's special TEDWeekends feature, "Asteroids: Getting Ready" >>
Phil Plait | Speaker | TED.com