• it/its

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caffeinatedOtter
@caffeinatedOtter

I find the old "according to the laws of aviation, bees shouldn't be able to fly" thing tiny-pebble-in-your-shoe irritating

It's such a perfect microcosm of how science is supposed to fucking work, sometimes does, and the fact people then...Just Fucking Won't let go of old shit!

We knew the "laws of aviation" as we understood them couldn't be complete; we knew that because the bee flies and we couldn't describe how. So we did research, and consequently, we have for very many fucking years actually understood perfectly fucking welll how bee flight works! We know! We have a scientific account of it! We updated the so-called "laws of aviation"!

But people! Won't! Let! Go! Of old shit! So more people know that "we don't know how bees fly hahalol" than know anything that's actually true about bees, flight, science, or the actual state of human knowledge!


silverspots
@silverspots

See also: What is an alpha wolf


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in reply to @caffeinatedOtter's post:

It was a good joke while it was a metaphor for plucky determination!
Then people started taking it literally!
Then people started repeating it ad nauseam!
Now it's neither a good joke nor a metaphor it's just tiring!

And also it's like... yeah! Like you said! The thing about science is that when it can't explain something, it's time to revise the models, re-test, and fuck around and find out more, not shrug and say "must be a miracle, it defies the Holy Laws of Science"!