AS A CHILD, I was taught “the scientific method” – see a problem, devise a hypothesis, test it with experiment. But in my 50 years of science, I’ve never actually done that. Instead, we get some new tool, bang it on whatever is handy, and look through the resulting pile of data until we see a pattern. Then we look for a problem that maybe that pattern can resolve.
Last month, I mentioned here the experiments we’ve done on water-rich meteorites, the ones made of the same material that we think the Japanese and American space probes collected from asteroids Ryugu and Bennu. Since we already had the equipment set up to do such measurements, we also took the same kind of data on a bunch of lunar meteorites – meteorites whose chemistry ties them to the Apollo Moon rocks.
03 June 2021, The Tablet
Faith, science and backwards thinking
Across the Universe
Get Instant Access
Continue Reading
Register for free to read this article in full
Subscribe for unlimited access
From just £30 quarterly
Complete access to all Tablet website content including all premium content.
The full weekly edition in print and digital including our 179 years archive.
PDF version to view on iPad, iPhone or computer.
Already a subscriber? Login