Miles Jackson wrote:
>
> On Wed, 2 Jan 2002, Daniel Davies wrote:
> Anybody who thinks that
> scientists digilently throw out an elegant theory just because some
> data contradicts it needs to put down the Popper and actually talk to
> some practicing scientists.
>
I no longer remember the title or author of a very interesting article that gives substance to MIles's observation. It was written by a prominent biologist, and dealt in general with the ways in which actual scientists handle "information." The core anecdote involved a paper of his own written years before on some experimentation which contradicted current theory in the field. The journal to which he submitted the article rejected it. Some years later, the conclusions of his article were demonstrated to be true. His observation: the journal editor was completely correct in rejecting the article. The experiment, at the time it was conducted, would have been of no use, and in fact would probably have slowed up progress in the field. Information is at best useless, and often harmful, without a theoretical framework.
Carrol