(Click here to read part one.)

Certainly, the hard sciences have their massive failures. Eugenics, cloud seeding and String Theory come to mind. We are in that bleak period in our understanding of the universe between the moment we have all of the pieces to the puzzle laid out before us and the time we figure out how they all fit together. (Things will likely become exponentially bleaker once the puzzle is complete, though, I’m betting.)

Neuroscience and genetics are great examples. We have in out hands the functional MRI, which allows us to observe the brain as it functions, and a map of the human genome. Both are among the most potent scientific triumphs, yet we haven’t fully learned how to properly use them. Our cleverness in creating technology has exceeded our ability to use them to their fullest capacity. This understanding will surely catch up to the technology in the near future; the point is that with hard disciplines that use the scientific method like neuroscience and genetics, at least we can replicate the failures along the way.