Consider this: if common wisdom agreed with the most current findings in research, what would the point of research be? Everyone would know it already.
There are plenty of “known unknowns” where learning the unknown doesn’t challenge existing beliefs. You can always work on nailing down more decimal places in physical constants, or finding which specific chemical is used in xyz biological process, or taking more detailed pictures of all kinds of stuff. (Some of these could turn up new discoveries that challenge existing beliefs, but the people funding the research to do it might not expect that.) It would be interesting to know what fraction of existing research is of this type.
I agree. The distinction I am trying to draw here is keeping the perspective of the layperson moving from zero to moderate understanding; I expect the researchers themselves to. . . sort of maintain the ‘direction’ of their understanding but deepen or broaden it along the way, if that makes sense.
But furthering your point, there are also a bunch of cases where common wisdom has a belief, which is basically correct, about which research is totally silent (or was until pretty recently). I have in mind here mundane findings like the physics of tying your shoes. This is mostly because researchers did not think it worth their time to investigate.
I probably mostly agree, but, about this:
There are plenty of “known unknowns” where learning the unknown doesn’t challenge existing beliefs. You can always work on nailing down more decimal places in physical constants, or finding which specific chemical is used in xyz biological process, or taking more detailed pictures of all kinds of stuff. (Some of these could turn up new discoveries that challenge existing beliefs, but the people funding the research to do it might not expect that.) It would be interesting to know what fraction of existing research is of this type.
I agree. The distinction I am trying to draw here is keeping the perspective of the layperson moving from zero to moderate understanding; I expect the researchers themselves to. . . sort of maintain the ‘direction’ of their understanding but deepen or broaden it along the way, if that makes sense.
But furthering your point, there are also a bunch of cases where common wisdom has a belief, which is basically correct, about which research is totally silent (or was until pretty recently). I have in mind here mundane findings like the physics of tying your shoes. This is mostly because researchers did not think it worth their time to investigate.