IGNORANCE

The process is more hit-or-miss than you might imagine, with much stumbling and groping after phantoms. But it is exactly this not k nowing, this puzzling over thorny questions or inexplicable data, that gets researchers into the lab early and keeps them there late , the thing that propels them, the very driving force of science. Firestein shows how scientists use ignorance to program their work , to identify what should be done, what the next steps are, and where they should concentrate their energies.