How Science Works

You all probably have a pretty good intuitive idea how science works, but it would be good to articulate this more clearly. For example, why is astronomy better than astrology? Why is medicine better than a "healing witchcraft"? Why is science so successful? You get the idea. How would you explain it to your grandma? How would you argue with a creationist who is saying that "science is just another religion?"

Well, there have been some good philosophers of science who thought a lot about this. (Stay with me, this is actually interesting.) Research on the web on your own: Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn; Gödel's theorem. Think about this: what are the roles and the limitations of logic (or deduction) and induction? Given the relativity and the quantum physics, is the Newtonian physics still valid or true in some sense?

Or to put it in another way: why are you here at Caltech, rather than, say, at Maharishi Institute?

Keep thinking.