Science. What's it all about? Since early Greek times the scientific method has been thought of as the correct way of transferring reality into concepts and has lead to some big advances for mankind. Numerology, the hammer, the water wheel and so on. Yet can we really trust science? Four hundred years ago scientists believed that the Earth was shaped like a torus, yet now we 'know' it's not. In another four hundred years what else may we look back on and think 'lol'? A group of scientists working out of a laboratory in Salford are trying to find that out, but not in the way that you might expect.
A woman at one end of the room is holding a torch. Next to me stands Dr. Stansfeld. The scientist turns on the torch and Stansfeld clicks his stopwatch.
"Ah, I thought so." he says, marking down a number on his clipboard.
"What's happening here?"
"We're measuring the speed of light."
"What have you found so far?"
"Well...it's the same as what's in the book. So that's good." says Stansfeld glumly. I can understand his glumnitude. For the last seventeen years Stansfeld has been rigorously testing every known scientific fact, starting from scratch.
"In school we take it for granted that what's in the book is correct. But what if it's not?"
"Well, I imagine people have been doing experiments on this sort of thing for...well, for centuries really." I say. Stansfeld shakes his head.
"You think they have, but where's the proof? I haven't seen it first hand, I need to make sure. That's what we're doing here. Making sure that science is right." he says. We walk around the lab, that resembles more a junk shop than a state of the art facility. He goes over to a desk and picks up a notebook and begins to show it me.
"This is where it all began. I retook the measurements used in which we measure everything against. The second, the metre. Time and space. From there you can work out speed, velocity, location and so on and so on." he says. Inside the book there are page after page of numbers and sketches. I ask him how long it took for him to prove that a second was actually a second. He responds by simply raising his eyebrows.
He then shows me some more advanced experiments. He went travelling around the world collecting ore samples in order to rebuild and prove the periodic table. He had his grandfather sign over his body to him upon his death so he could see for himself human physiology. I ask him if so far has he found anything different from what is already known.
"Not yet, although we are getting closer to 20th century science. Quantum physics, psychology, antibacterial medicine, that kind of thing. Because of all the advancements that happened then, I'm sure someone must have made a mistake." he says with a slight shine in his blue eyes. I ask him how he intends to replicate the experiments done at the LHC. He shakes his head.
"That damn thing. How do they expect anyone to be able to see for themselves a Higgs Boson? Still, I have been writing letters to the government to use sewage pipes under the M25 as a sort of replica. We're going to call it the Large Shit Collider." he jokes. I thank him for his time and leave promptly. Such valiant efforts all in vain, yet who knows what kind of crazy thing Stansfeld may uncover in his search for finding what is already there. Maybe orange is actually a shade of yellow or the world is actually upside down? It is people like he that which more the berry rub.
