In my ongoing global warming exposure post, which you can ever-so-conveniently find here, I wrote this:

In 2003, NASA sent up what was heralded as “the most perfect spheres ever created by humanity.” Without getting into the details, this experiment was set to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Einstein published his paper on relativity in 1905, yet nearly 100 years later, we are still physically testing the theory — a theory taken as fact for nearly a century.

That’s the nature of science. We hypothesize, test, and conclude. Then we repeat. And repeat again. Then we publish the works, all information, and the process, so other scientists can test. Then they do it again. And again and again. Politics, on the other hand, demands that science stick its collective finger in the air and conclude, without any doubt, that global warming, for example, is true and that it is humanity’s fault.

This is a comic from xkcd which sums up exactly what I’m talking about in a tongue-in-cheek way. Enjoy!