Remember what Dick Norris told us earlier about being wrong: 8:39 (Norris) My experience is that I am almost always wrong, that the original idea I came up with is actually 8:45 not a very good explanation for the way nature really works. And, in many respects, I think 8:51 that that's the very best possible outcome, because if it turns out I'd been right to 8:56 begin with, I must not have asked a very interesting question. But because I'm wrong, and I'm discovering 9:02 how I'm wrong, and then also what the alternative explanations are, and eventually coming up 9:08 with what I believe is the correct answer, it is just terrifically more exciting to be 9:13 part of that kind of process. (Narrator)

1:29 (Narrator) So the real scientific process is not a simple linear one. This diagram shows it can move 1:37 in many different directions. There is often a constant adjustment of knowledge and of 1:42 what the really interesting questions are.

1:09 (Norris, offscreen) All the time you're collecting information you're asking new questions. That's the key 1:14 part of science. It's not just one question and the answer, it's one question leading 1:19 to a bunch of other questions, leading to a bunch of other answers, which in turn eventually 1:24 lead you to a much more full understanding of the process.

0:02 (Narrator) Science, the art of learning about the natural world around us. It seems straight-foward, 0:08 you ask a question, you make a hypothesis about what you expect to find, then you perform 0:14 an experiment to see if the hypothesis is correct, you analyze the data, and determine 0:20 if you were right. Simple, right? Well, not really. There is much more to it than that, 0:27 which is what makes science so exciting. And fun! In fact, scientists often describe it 0:34 as a process that is all about exploring, asking questions, testing hypotheses, and 0:41 changing directions if their original ideas were wrong; all the while working and sharing 0:47 with other scientists, advancing what 0:50 we know 0:51 about the world 0:52 around us.

0:53 (Dick Norris) My experience is that I am almost always wrong--that the original idea I came 1:00 up with is actually not a very good explanation for the way nature really works.