“‘Contrariwise,’ continued Tweedledee, 'if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.’”—Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
This is the first of a series of articles on how science works and, most importantly, the limits of science: what it cannot tell us about our world. There’ll be several pieces on how and why we believe, the various kinds of knowing, and how they’re used in science. I’ll give examples of how scientific beliefs change when new facts and theories emerge. The framework for this discussion will be the historical development of thermodynamics, the science of energy.