{"id":499,"date":"2009-08-02T12:08:25","date_gmt":"2009-08-02T00:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/08\/experimental_vs_historical_sci\/"},"modified":"2009-08-02T12:08:25","modified_gmt":"2009-08-02T00:08:25","slug":"experimental-vs-historical-sci","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/08\/experimental-vs-historical-sci\/","title":{"rendered":"experimental vs ‘historical’ science – does this dichotomy really exist"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve heard it said that the only ‘real’ science is experiment-based – things like palaeontology, astronomy & so on can’t get it right because they are ‘observational’, looking back into the past, & so can’t generate repeatable data. It’s usually said as the preface to special pleading for some sort of supernatural influence on the world.<\/p>\n

Now Ken has a great post<\/a> on this rather pointless distinction, over at Open Parachute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve heard it said that the only ‘real’ science is experiment-based – things like palaeontology, astronomy & so on can’t get it right because they are ‘observational’, looking back into the past, & so can’t generate repeatable data. It’s usually said as the preface to special pleading for some sort of supernatural influence on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15,2],"tags":[22,3,10,4],"yoast_head":"\nexperimental vs 'historical' science - does this dichotomy really exist : BioBlog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/08\/experimental-vs-historical-sci\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"experimental vs 'historical' science - does this dichotomy really exist : BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’ve heard it said that the only ‘real’ science is experiment-based – things like palaeontology, astronomy & so on can’t get it right because they are ‘observational’, looking back into the past, & so can’t generate repeatable data. 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