The one thing that I think everyone should know about science is that science has developed methods for providing us with knowledge, that are both fallible and corrigible.

It is important to know that scientific knowledge is fallible - is always subject to challenge and refutation - because this saves us from dogmatism, and makes us sceptical of all claims to infallible knowledge. It is important to know that scientific knowledge is corrigible - when errors are found, there are techniques for improving the erroneous knowledge - because this saves us from radical scepticism, and from the argument that scientific knowledge has no better claim to acceptance than any old belief or prejudice. One such argument is that creationism and evolutionism are just alternate beliefs, and that both should be taught, leaving it up to the individual to decide what they want to believe.

The metaphor for science that I like goes back to the Greeks. We are in the position of sailors, navigating a ship at sea. If the ship develops a problem, then we cannot put into drydock to fix it. We must carry out the repairs while still navigating towards our goal, as best we can.

John Stachel is author of Einstein from 'B' to 'Z' (buy this book from Amazon (UK) or Amazon (USA)), and founding editor of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein (buy the first volume, The Early Years: 1879-1902, from Amazon (UK) or Amazon (USA)).