Popular science glorifies theorists like Einstein, but progress is impossible without experimentalists who validate theories. The 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, for example, led to a Nobel for the theorists, while the thousands of experimenters remain anonymous.
A tumor can be viewed as an evolving system within the body's environment. It progresses from stage to stage by "ratcheting up" its functional information—its ability to survive and grow. This evolutionary framework could inspire novel cancer treatments.
Counterbalancing the well-known arrow of time (entropy and decay), a proposed new law of nature suggests a second arrow. This law describes the universe's inherent tendency to build greater pattern, complexity, and functional information in all evolving systems.
The principle of evolution extends beyond biology to inanimate systems like minerals, cities, and AI. All these systems tend toward greater complexity and pattern over time, with Darwin's theory being a specific application for living organisms with genetic transfer.
The scientific process is vulnerable to human fallibility, as scientists are prone to bias and resistance to counterintuitive ideas. Physicist Robert Millikan spent 12 years trying to disprove Einstein's quantum theories, unintentionally gathering the very data that proved them right.
The "Matilda Effect" describes how women's scientific contributions are systematically overlooked or misattributed to men. Physicists like Marietta Blau and Biba Chowdhury made Nobel-worthy particle discoveries, but the prizes were awarded to men who replicated their work years later.