When finding nothing is something
In science, coming up with the answer is often the easy part.
The recent solar eclipse demonstrates much more than astronomy. (Image: one page of Guy Ottwell’s The Under-Standing of Eclipses, available here)
A recent article on one of the great scientists in the field of General Relativity prompted our astronomer to reflect on stereotypes in science, and how sometimes they can be very wrong.
Proving that something doesn’t exist is hard, though it can be done. More often, scientists work out more and more restrictions on the characteristics something can have, until the idea has no place left to hide.
A common feature of paradoxers is a confusion between a simple argument and a correct one.