Science II

What is science?

Wikipedia says: (from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") is an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world.

Mirriam-Webster says:  a : knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method

So, science builds and organizes knowledge or it can also be seen as the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method.  Well, that's interesting because I hear so-called scientists mock anecdotal data all the time.  If one starts with the anecdotal data, questions why it happens, further studies and observes it; isn't THIS building and organizing knowledge?  I believe the true scientists are inspired by the anecdotal.  Before a study is replicated, it has to be done for the first time; it wouldn’t be done for the first time if there wasn’t a scientist who was curious about something that was once anecdotal.  What is a hypothesis, but an educated guess based on a cross between what is known and what is anecdotal?  Before Dr. Haley Boyd (a true scientist) started his research on the effects of thimerosal,  didn't he use facts that he knew about thimerosal, (that it made him sick and it contains high levels of mercury), and what was anecdotal, (many parents believed that vaccines, which contained thimerosal, made their children very sick) as building blocks to form his hypothesis?

True scientists are these highly educated individuals with the curiosity of children.  They are tenacious and stubborn when it comes to knowledge because they will not stop asking "what if..." even after the first "what if..." is answered.  Sometimes after the first "what if" is answered it snowballs into what seems like an infinite abyss of "what if..." after "what if..." before that scientist becomes one of the greats because in the midst of answering those questions he/ she discovers something amazing.

It's the kind of science that those individuals pursued that inspires and intrigues me.  It is that kind of science that I miss when I hear all of the junk in mass media.  It is that kind of science that is lost and/ or insulted when I hear something as vital as anecdotal data being dismissed instead of used for further questioning and observation.