I recently got an email from an anthropologist commenting on a new report in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. The topic of that…

...it does illustrate the counterintuitive way that modern science works.

People often think that the job of scientists is to prove a hypothesis is true—the existence of electrons, for example, or the ability of a drug to cure cancer. But very often, scientists do the reverse: They set out to disprove a hypothesis.

I recently got an email from an anthropologist commenting on a new report in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. The topic of that…

...it does illustrate the counterintuitive way that modern science works.

People often think that the job of scientists is to prove a hypothesis is true—the existence of electrons, for example, or the ability of a drug to cure cancer. But very often, scientists do the reverse: They set out to disprove a hypothesis.