From Byron Rigby, Melbourne, Australia
Your review of Adam Kucharski’s book Proof refers to “truth” and “truth-seeking” in science. I don’t know if Kucharski’s book uses these terms much, but perhaps it should be added that indisputable truth isn’t available in science, and that seeking evidence for something is less important than seeking evidence against it. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in Isaac Newton’s theories of motion and gravitation being refuted from the beginning by anomalies in Mercury’s orbit (22 March, p 26).
Once you get used to it, the perpetual uncertainty of science can be a great source of joy. There is no dead end; the journey is perpetual.
