inspired guesses

[Theresa Partington]

At the risk of dragging up the 'science' string of a couple of weeks ago, there is a nice article in the Daily Telegraph today which is an extract from a book called 'What we believe but cannot prove: today's leading thinkers on science in the days of certainty' by Ian McEwan (yes, *the* Ian McEwan.) The headline is something about inspired guesswork. Not online today but maybe tomorrow (www.telegraph.co.uk). It quotes cases where the original leap happened and was accepted before the evidence was there, and, indeed it has sometimes been a while before garnering the evidence was technically possible. Apparently, one leading scientist's response to first view of the double helix model was to say ' It is so pretty it must be true'!
bw
Theresa
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