Most of us think of science as a body of knowledge about the world, acquired and revised over centuries of pursuing the scientific method.
Stuart Firestein sees it differently. What drives science, he thinks, is not knowledge, but ignorance: the infinite unknowns that lie just beyond the rim of each discovery. Studio 360’s Kurt Andersen welcomed Firestein, the chairman of biology at Columbia University and the author of Ignorance: How It Drives Science, and a group of Columbia scientists from many fields to discuss the exhilarating unknowns that will change everything we think we understand about the world.
Featured scientists included:
Dr. Martin Chalfie, biologist and Nobel laureate: What can roundworms tell us about being human?
Dr. Sarah Woolley, psychologist: What are birds thinking about when they sing?
Dr. Klaus Lackner, engineer and physicist: What can we do with CO2?
Dr. Kathryn Johnston, astronomer: How is dark matter shaped?
Studio 360’s series on Science & Creativity received support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Watch excerpts: