To save science, try celebrating “high quality ignorance”

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LONG BEACH, CA—Stuart Firestein chairs the biological sciences department at Columbia University, and he came to the stage on the second day of the TED2013 conference in Southern California to address the scientific process. Specifically, Firestein wanted to share his thoughts on science's ability, or lack thereof, to capture the hearts and minds of the general public. Channeling a bit of Socrates, who once famously quipped “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing,” Firestein encouraged a change in the public perception of science—a change that begins with embracing what we don't know.

Firestein believes we have collectively put the scientific method on a pedestal, and we have imagined scientists as fact-producers. As a result, the public thinks scientists collect data and facts and publish them in books. But that's not an accurate perception. What’s really going on in science, Firestein said, is “farting around…in the dark.”

What scientists actually do is think about what they don’t know. “The ignorance is what’s missing” from public discussions of science, Firestein told the crowd. As a word, “ignorance” is potentially provocative, so he clarified. Firestein means "ignorance" in the sense that science focuses on recognizing and studying communal gaps in knowledge (rather than lauding the village idiot). This is the exciting part of science: “the boundary just outside the facts.”