The Greeks famously identified many patterns and rhythms in the sky, deducing detailed information about eclipses and orbits that still have relevance today. The Chinese, on the other hand, made landmark discoveries of supernovae and comets - events that were unexpected (stochastic) in nature and not forming any part of any rhythm.

This talk will consider how expectation plays a role in discovery and in scientific advance, and considers the challenges involved in assessing changes taking place on our own planet.

A lecture by Katherine Blundell 20 May

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/perception-expectation-discovery

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

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