- Science is constantly evolving as new discoveries challenge existing hypotheses and theories, forcing scientists to revise their understanding. The cell provides a clear example, with early microscopes revealing cells, and later discoveries finding even smaller structures inside cells. - Plate tectonics and earthquakes are other areas where scientists have repeatedly refined and revised their views to incorporate new data over thousands of years. Alfred Wegener first proposed the theory of continental drift in the early 20th century but it was met with skepticism until further evidence emerged to support it. - Scientific theories often face skepticism initially but must be proposed to advance understanding, and the scientific method helps evaluate theories through evidence and prevent ideas being dismissed without consideration.

1. Nothing in science is written in stone.
Whenever new discoveries force scientists to reconsider their
hypotheses, theories and data, they do just that. This is why
people think of science as a collection of concepts that are
always being revised.
This holds true for the basic building block concepts within
science as well. The cell is a perfect example of this: in the
mid-1600s, Robert Hooke used one of the very first microscopes
to examine thin slices of cork. When he saw that the cork plant
was made up of tiny box-shaped pieces, he gave science the
concept of the cell. For 100 years, people thought of the cell as
the smallest thing inside all living creatures. But then, in 1781,
Felice Fontana spotted something even smaller inside the cells
from an eel: the nucleolus. This discovery made people rethink
the idea that cells were the tiniest things inside living creatures.
Clearly, there were even smaller things inside cells.
Since Fontana's time, scientists have refined, revised, and
rewritten their view of the cell thousands of times in order to
match up with every piece of new data. This same process has
happened with the scientific view of geological processes
including plate tectonics and earthquakes.
Review attachment 17.2 on "Science in the Making, Reactions
to Plate Tectonics." and answer questions below also
Learn more about Alfred Wegener here:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/wegener.html
http://scign.jpl.nasa.gov/learn/plate2.htm
Science and revision
In 200 words answer these questions
Using what you learned about plate tectonics, Alfred Wegener,

2. and the basics of scientific investigation from the previous units
discuss the following:
Did Wegener reveal his theory of continental drift too soon? For
the sake of scientific investigation, how is revealing an
explanation for a process early both risky and sometimes
necessary?
Apart from lacking an explanation for how the continents could
move across the surface of the Earth, Wegener’s research was
met by skepticism for other reasons. How can a scientist
overcome skepticism? What features of the scientific method
can help prevent a scientist from being labeled a crackpot?
If Alfred Wegener were alive today, and had access to the
technology and data we have now, share a form of evidence that
he could have added to his theory or would have changed his
theory. Try to share a different form of evidence from those
shared by your classmates and/or add to their posts by
describing how the evidence is collected, how the technology
works to collect the data, or how this technology/evidence has
been used in other applications.