How We Know

The creative imagination plays a role in the sciences no less than in the arts, and scientific discoveries have an aesthetic beauty of their own that can be enjoyed by the non-scientist. Written to be understood by readers without prior scientific training, the main features of the scientific method are illustrated by the use of case histories of research and discovery. The book also explores such questions as the nature of scientific understanding of the world, how theories are invented, how they are tested experimentally, and whether the scientist is ever "objective."