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Topic: science education

Podcast episode
1 podcast episode

In Philosophy of Science

Podcast episode · Philosophy of Science

364 | Stuart Firestein on How Science Relies on Ignorance and Failure

Sean Carroll's Mindscape

Aug 17, 2026

Stuart Firestein examines why productive science depends on ignorance, unsuccessful experiments and uncertainty as well as established knowledge. The conversation considers research at the boundary of what is understood, the role of conjecture and testing, and the absence of a guaranteed method for making discoveries. It also asks how public understanding and science education can better represent the process of investigation.