In 2015, astrophysicist and science commentary go-to guy Neil Degrasse Tyson, flubbing an answer on a quiz show, quipped: “I love being wrong because that means…I learned something new that day.”
That’s my favorite of Tyson’s many memorable lines, and it’s one that I wish I heard other researchers express more often. Science at its best is about constant refinement and being willing to learn new things — even when the new evidence or hypotheses contradict what some researchers, out of ego, myopia or the power of conventional thinking, insist is truth.
Two paleontology papers published today, while not related to each other, offer a glimpse into how science can hit snags and what researchers can do to avoid them.
In Exhibit A, published in Geological Magazine, paleontologists Judy Massare of SUNY College of Brockport and Dean Lomax of the University of Manchester fire off a fresh salvo in one of the oldest debates in the field: the classic lumpers v. splitters kerfuffle, also seen in paleoanthropology.
