Examine the claim that “chance plays a significant role in the development of knowledge in science."?

Answer 1

It serves to remind us that an unexpected result is not necessarily a failure.

This may not be as true now as in the past, but many significant discoveries were made entirely by accident. The first example that comes to my mind is when food was first cooked by microwave energy. Dr Percy Spencer of the Raytheon Corporation was working on a microwave application when the chocolate bar in his pocket melted. Raytheon developed the first microwave oven based on this chance discovery.

This brings us to my earlier mention of different times. In the past, we had "inventors" like Thomas Edison, that became pop icons; almost heroic personalities. Edison had many employees that made most of his discoveries, or he made small changes to another invention and claimed a new patent for himself. The patents were claimed in his name, making him one of the most prolific patent recipients to date. Today, those same patents would be claimed by his corporation. Nobody today would think that Bill Gates wrote every piece of code for Microsoft (actually, he didn't even write the first piece - he bought it). Edison was quoted in 1932 in Harper's Monthly as saying that, "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration." He meant that hard work was the key his success. But he also said that if he tried 10,000 times to make something work and did not find the solution, that he had not failed, but rather that he had been successful in identifying 10,000 ways that didn't work. That's playing the numbers, and playing the numbers is, indeed, chance. You can afford to do that if you have enough employees. It is akin to the Infinite Monkey Theorem where, if you have a monkey hitting random keys on a keyboard for an infinite amount of time - he will almost surely come up with the works of Shakespeare, or the Bible, eventually.

Chance discoveries are not always to the benefit of the discoverer. Dr Marie Curie died from her massive lifetime exposure to the same nuclear radiation that won her two Nobel Prizes. Now we know that shielding is important - thanks, Marie.

Answer 2

Didn't Republicans in congress cut funding for embassy security in favor of tax breaks for the rich?

Answer 3

Well, uncertainty plays a part in some research.... so maybe chance or luck perhaps is quite a role..

Answer 4

In physics most "discoveries" were being actively looked for. Sometimes the result were surprising but that is not chance.