When it comes to science, saying that one thing or another is just a theory does not make it speculative or unproven

Jan 25, 2015 20:10 GMT  ·  By

Earlier this week, a bunch of scientists made a most startling announcement. They said that, according to their investigations, our home galaxy, the Milky Way, might be home to a wormhole that could be big enough to span from one of its ends to the other.

That’s right, a wormhole, as in a tunnel connecting two different regions of space and time. Obviously, this one piece of news started making rounds almost as soon as it hit the public, and rightfully so.

Oddly so, the news was quite a disappointment

Let’s face it, it’s not all that often that we get to hear about how space-time travel could be well within our reach. The thing is that, as disappointing as this might be, this discussion about how the Milky Way could be one ginormous wormhole was a purely theoretical one.

First off, wormholes themselves are, for the time being at least, purely theoretical concepts. Otherwise put, researchers have not yet found concrete evidence that they exist. Hence, it was just in theory that the Milky Way was shown to possibly host a space-time tunnel.

Quite a lot of people weren’t exactly thrilled to learn that this entire talk about how our home galaxy might be a wormhole from one end to the other was merely a theoretical one. If it’s just theory, then it’s not proven and if it’s not proven why bother talking about it?

The thing is that, contrary to what some might assume, scientific theories are not a complete waste of time. They play a major part in the progress of knowledge and, therefore, are pretty darn useful. In fact, it’s safe to say that there would be no science without them.

How a scientific theory is born

Admittedly, some scientific theories are nothing short of outrageous and shocking. Still, this does not change the fact that neither of them is pure fabrication. Thus, the theories brought forth by brainiacs are explanations and models born from experimentation, observation and reasoning.

Plainly put, scientific theories are not just the product of a twisted mind or the work of people who have too much free time on their hands and who, for some reason, take great pleasure in exercising their imagination.

Long story short, scientific theories summarize one or more hypotheses obtained by means of repeated testing. The only way for hypotheses to go the extra mile and birth theories is for them to have enough evidence backing them up. What this means is that all scientific theories are based on observations.

So, what purpose do scientific theories serve?

The reason researchers take such pleasure in coughing out new scientific theories every other day is that these constructs are essentially general principles that help explain and predict natural phenomena.

Otherwise put, the theories developed by scientists are means of interpreting observable facts starting from experiments and observations. Seeing how they function as general principles, they also serve to make predictions about what stands to happen under certain circumstances.

In other words, scientific theories further knowledge and allow researchers to put whatever information they gathered by studying facts to better use. In time and if proven absolutely correct, theories can go on to become laws describing and not just explaining phenomena.

Mind you, it’s important to keep in mind that scientific theories are not set in stone. On the contrary, they can be changed as more information is gathered. In fact, they can even be rejected. The end goal is to make sure that the predictions based on them are as accurate as possible.