The Power of Anomalies - Scientific American

The opening paragraph says it all: "Progress in science is sometimes triggered by surprises. Data collection resembles gathering of new pieces in a jigsaw puzzle and placing them together. Sometimes one of the pieces does not quite fit. It is natural for scientists to instinctively argue that such a piece does not belong; perhaps it is an artifact driven by uncertainties in the data or a misinterpretation of the experiment. This might indeed be the case in most instances. But every now and then, an anomaly of this type signals a real discrepancy from expectations, either a violation of a highly respected but incomplete law of nature—namely an exception to the rule, or an unexpected surprise—signaling the possibility of 'new physics.'" We couldn't have said it better ourself, though of course this doesn't just apply to physics but to all branches of science. (PH)

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from THE ANOMALIST http://bit.ly/2NyXdeQ