Theory and Practice

By Mikayla Kifer

Science is an amazing, beautiful mix of ideas on the page and observations in real life. People make their livings by studying the relationship between the two, and the quest to understand truth is realized by comparing what we see and what we think we know. As young students, we learn all the “laws” of the world. But as we start to experiment and read journal articles, we discover that the world isn’t as fully understood and stable as we thought. This is, or should be, the greatest joy of science—we should be filled with an insatiable need to understand the world around us and uncover truths that are hidden.

            The relationship between theory and practice has become abundantly clear to me this semester. Part of the reason I wanted to study tropical biology in Costa Rica was because I felt that I had been learning a lot of theory in college, but not the nitty-gritty details that reveal how it all fits together. I had a strong desire to be in the field and learn the specifics of the theories that didn’t make complete sense without their fundamental real-life components.

            Since I’ve been here, I’ve been learning that it’s all much more messy than that. Relationships that make sense according to theories, don’t always make sense in practice. It’s often not clear why animals behave the way they do. Studying plant taxonomy has taught me that there are always exceptions to the rule. Science is supposed to explain the world around us, but it needs a whole lot of tweaking along the way. Contrary to what it might seem, this experience hasn’t made me doubt the validity of scientific evidence, though I retain a healthy amount of skepticism. Rather, it’s given me more faith in the scientific process by demonstrating the immense complexity of the world around us and the care that goes into understanding it.

            Science is rarely about finding evidence in order to posit huge theories; it seems to me that it’s more about finding small truths, being certain about them, and using them to support big ideas. This small process seems much more exciting to me. It’s great that research has implications for big concepts and applied knowledge, but well-done studies are exciting because they are truth within the small scope that they're focusing on. Everyone has a different reason for doing scientific research; this one is mine and I think it gets at the fundamental reason of why we do science in the first place.

            Because the relationship between theory and practice is so complex, it's a real challenge to represent scientific findings and their significance accurately. Communicating what science is is one of the most difficult tasks of a scientist, but also the most essential. Understanding truth is not useful if you can’t share it. Unfortunately, there seems to be a fundamental disconnect between scientific truth and the public’s understanding of it. I believe this stems from nonscientists misunderstanding what science can do and what it can't do. Scientific research can indicate that there is a highly likelihood that anthropogenic climate change is happening. Scientific research cannot predict with 100% accuracy the effects of these changes and should not be discredited when it cannot do so.

            I’ve thought about this a lot and I don’t have a solution, but I think it would be a good start to begin to integrate scientific theory into everyday life. The scientific method is derived from basic logic (induction and deduction) and thus it is not overly complicated to understand. Asking nonscientists to have a basic understanding of the scientific method would help them have a greater understanding of the limits of scientific evidence. If this were the case, we would be better able to focus on the whole point of science—finding truth—and that truth would be more readily communicated and therefore more appreciated.

            It is my hope that one day everyone will be able to appreciate the complexity of scientific understanding, especially as it relates to small truths that fit into our big theories in interesting and unexpected ways. For now, I’m excited to continue exploring this relationship myself by learning with both my hands and my mind.