Our knowledge is growing. It’s like a pile to which scientific research is adding more and more. That is certainly a simple picture of the history of science.

But the picture is wrong, as the philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn (1922—1996) has shown. The foundations of a scientific discipline are constantly being shaken. Even the fundamental assumptions that have been agreed upon are proving problematic. New findings permeate the pile of previous knowledge like shock waves. Around 100 years ago, classical physics was shaken by quantum mechanics. Blurring and quantum leaps called into question the principles we rely on in our day-to-day lives.

Experience suggests that such shocks will continue to occur in the future. But that doesn’t have to be the case everywhere. Science can, but does not have to, shake things up.