jurgen.lottermoser (5/27/2015)
don't mean to rain on your parade, but is there such a thing as settled science? other than perhaps to some level of probability?
I don't think so. I'd say that most things we take as "fact" in science are highly probable. Even if we can 100% predict outcomes, we often don't completely understand how things work. Some of that is the crudeness of our instruments. Each day we advance our understanding and sometimes what we thought we knew becomes a bit more nuanced.
I don't think we'll disprove many of the simple things, but fluid dynamics, frictional effects, not to mention all sorts of biology, weather, etc., are still too complex for us to completely explain. There are all sorts of exceptions.
Not enough to affect us in our general lives, but certainly not certain enough for us not to continue to study, hypothesize, experiment, and learn.