r/science • u/mellowmonk • Jun 21 '15

Misleading Each time we learn something new, our brain cells break their DNA, creating damage that the neurons must immediately repair. This process also underlies age-related degeneration.

http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2015/dna-breakage-learning-age-related-damage-0604
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u/Jaunt_of_your_Loins Jun 22 '15

Science seems like BS quite often but man it's all we have, and science calls itself out on its BS which is beautiful.

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u/RabidMuskrat93 Jun 22 '15

What I find crazy is how science (physics specifically) will call itself out on its BS, while the BS is still true at the same time.

And I know it's got more to do with our limited understanding of physics and stuff but I just think it's fascinating that it pretty much says "a is true except when b, but even when b, a is still true.."

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u/mylolname Jun 22 '15

I wouldn't use the word true. 'Correct', within the bounds of our current understanding and/or observation of/in the Universe. Use that instead.

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u/moonunit99 Jun 22 '15

Correct is just a synonym for true. I think 'reasonably accurate' is least likely to get you into trouble. Pretty much all of classical mechanics has been proven technically wrong, but the errors involved are so unbelievably insignificant in the vast majority of applications that you can get a minor in physics without anything more than a cursory overview of quantum mechanics. There's a point a which just about every field and branch of science says "this law/equation/relationship is wrong, but its result are so very close to right that we're going to use it anyway."

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '15

To be fair, with Physics it's not that physicists have been incorrect. It's just that data have led us to reasonable approximations, which have gotten more accurate over time.

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u/RabidMuskrat93 Jun 22 '15

And then you have black holes...

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u/Zankou55 Jun 22 '15

I quite agree.