Revisiting the Scientific Method

“Truth is sought for its own sake. And those who are engaged upon the quest for anything for its own sake are not interested in other things. Finding the truth is difficult, and the road to it is rough.”1 —Ibn al-Haytham So wrote Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), who was born around 965 in Basra (now Iraq, but then part of Persia), lived most of his life in Egypt, and is credited with being an early developer of the scientific method. His road to truth took a wrong turn that almost cost him his life. After claiming that he could use mathematical principles to regulate the flooding of the Nile—and later realizing that this was, in fact, impossible to achieve—he found himself in deep trouble with the reigning powers. To escape execution, he feigned insanity. Placed under permanent house arrest, he continued his scientific explorations (most notably in the field of optics, writing his groundbreaking Book of Optics during this period of confinement) until his death at the age of 76.2The foundations of the scientific method date back at least a thousand years. Most of us were first introduced to scientific thinking in high school. We were taught that scientific knowledge is based upon a process of gathering observable, empirical, and measurable evidence and then using our powers of reasoning to make sense out of these data.3 It is the scientific method that has enabled our education and training in medicine and plastic … Reprint requests: Jeffrey M. Kenkel, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Department of Plastic Surgery, 1801 Inwood Road, WA4 Dallas, TX 75390. E-mail: Jeffery.Kenkel{at}UTSouthwestern.edu