The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn

I read The Structure of Scientific Revolutions in preparation for writing on my Physics Rebooted blog. This book blew my mind. It showed that the process of scientific discovery we're taught in school is a complete fabrication. They say the history books are written by the winners, and the same is true for science books.

This idea is something I've noticed in my own work in drug discovery. Many scientists think that progress is as easy as coming up with a theory and then doing a few experiments to prove the theory. And then they are shocked when the experiments don't go as expected. I believe this attitude is a result of how science is taught in school because it mostly removes mention of competing theories, false starts, incorrect assumptions, etc.

The net result is that most people, including many practicing scientists, don't realize that Science is F**king Hard. This view is further supported by Kuhn's book.

Written in 1962, the book gives many examples of how scientific revolution is the normal process for how progress is made in science. This is the best book I've read on how science actually works and how it is actually practiced. For instance, most professional scientists are content to be "puzzle solvers" working on problems nicely contained within a proscribed area with clearly defined theories and assumptions. And most are very uncomfortable when those theories and assumptions are challenged.

The book helps explain by Lewis Little's Theory of Elementary Waves has not taken the physics world by storm even though it finally gives a non-contradictory explanation of quantum phenomena such as the double-slit experiment. Kuhn's book is also useful in setting expectations for my Physics Rebooted blog--it will probably take a generation or more for Little's theory to be generally accepted (assuming, of course, that it is shown to be correct).