John Cogan Reflection

This was one of my favorite talks that I was able to attend due to being able to put the past more into perspective. What these scientists were doing was insane and going against what everyone believes to be true. I like the exercise where we had to try and explain what air and oxygen were like we didn’t already know it existed. When putting myself in the general publics’ shoes when a scientist tried to explain this concept I would have been so confused and probably would have dismissed it at first. It makes senes now because the reason why we breathe is to get oxygen into our bodies, but if I believe my whole life that there was no such thing as air with all of these gases in it I would have been mind blown. It is truly amazing to see how far we have become as a society on how much we have learned, and it is crazy to think that we have truly only touched the surface. In class, I wondered how students years from now will be learning about our generation’s innovations and discoveries and they might look at them the same way we looked at the past with this notion of how did you not know that? But if you spent your whole life learning that this was the way it is and then all of a sudden someone is combating your beliefs, it would be hard to get on board.

One thought on “John Cogan Reflection

  1. I think you’ve hit on a fundamental principle in the history of science. Namely, it’s hard to get “on board” with new discoveries when what you have learned is in contradiction. It is my hope that by understanding this phenomenon in the past will allow us to better accept new ideas in the present or future.

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