Are You Saying the Map is Wrong? Oh, Dear. Yes.

This topic came up in discussion during my Teaching Science class tonight and I remembered a great episode of the West Wing that addressed it. It speaks for itself. 

What else don't we know that we think we do?

And where IS France, anyway?

I hate to post this. I really do.

But my prof is requiring that I do so.

I took a science quiz ostensibly to measure my science knowledge. There were 25 questions and I got 25 correct. The answer key says I'm a CHEATER, but really, I didn't cheat. 

The point, of course, is that a lot of what we "know" about science are things that we heard from others, or assumed, or didn't think through. 

Moths like lights like Romeo liked Juliet, we're told. But they're really just determined navigators. 

Einstein got low grades -- 1 out of 4, most of the time. But they do things differently in various countries. 

And so on. 

Without the suspicion that my assumptions were being ravaged, I may not have done so well. But it underscores the whole point: there are reasons that things work the way they do, and it may not be obvious why. 

We get more colds in winter because...well, not because it's winter. Or rather, not because it's winter in the way you might think. 

I wonder how many thousand other assumptions I have about everything need to be disproved?

Take the quiz here.