Single Review on past events

Giovanni Galizia (Director of the Zukunftskolleg/Dept. of Biology) gave a lecture on “What is evidence in the biological sciences? Examples from olfactory research". He started his presentation with the question, how and when a scientist knows that he has found the (right) solution for a particular question. He described research on the basis of the Eureka-moments (Eureka is an interjection - attributed to Archimedes - used to celebrate a discovery). According to Galizia a scientist has three Eureka-moments: first, when he first thinks of a solution/evidence in his research, second, when the data yield sufficient evidence, and third, when he has to create a Eureka-moment in an audience, i.e. convince others of his findings.

In his lecture Giovanni Galizia mainly focused on the second aspect and illustrated it with his own research data on how odors are processed in insect brains. Then he left the biological field and talked about how we generate knowledge and how standards of good sciences are defined in practice. He elucidated six entities that define these standards in different ways: journals, societies, scientists themselves, philosophers, funding agencies and communities, drawing examples from each of these. From the philosophical point of view Karl Popper´s way of thinking about science is dominant in a practicing scientist’s mind: We can only falsify, but not verify our hypotheses. However, this creates a dilemma for the scientist in practice: while Popper teaches us that we can never trust our hypotheses, but only what we have shown to be false, we are nevertheless more interested in a (positive) answer rather than its refutation. Supporters of data-driven research would argue that statistics are the answer. But here Giovanni Galizia says no: Statistics is a technique to describe data and to test it, but it is not the answer itself. The subsequent discussion covered several aspects, in particular the distinction between “hypothesis free” and “hypothesis driven” approaches to biological questions. One answer that Giovanni Galizia could give his audience at the end of his presentation was definitely true: Science is fun and the most beautiful job in the world! (For more information, see Galizia CG (2010): “Biowissenschaft“. Chapter in: "Heureka - Evidenzkriterien in den Wissenschaften", Engelen E-M, Fleischhack Ch, Galizia CG, Landfester K (Eds.), Spektrum Akademischer Verlag Heidelberg. pp 15 – 36.)