Science News

While I can’t do Kuhn’s study justice in a few hundred words, I will simplify his theory as best I can. Essentially, Kuhn argued that throughout scientific history, true changes in our understanding of the world were only derived when scientists made observations that ran contrary to popular understanding. Copernicus’ observation and defence of a heliocentric understanding of the solar system in the face of a geocentric standard allowed us to better understand the movements of the planets. Einstein’s theory of relativity ran contrary to the widely accepted Newtonian physics and have helped us master spaceflight. As Kuhn saw it, each time a scientist made an observation that broke our understanding of the world, a new set of explanations for how the world worked was able to fall out. While we had previously spent centuries explaining the movement of the stars (incorrectly) based on a geocentric understanding of the solar system, we were able to create a new and far more accurate set of explanations once Copernicus had simply proved the earth, in fact, revolved around the sun.