# Day Science vs Night Science **Day science** is defined by the structured, rational testing of hypotheses through experiments. It is rigorous, structured, systematic and objective. To [quote Nobel Prize winning Biologist Francois Jacob](https://night-science.org/2019/12/23/francois-jacob/): > Day science employs reasoning that meshes like gears, and achieves results with a force of certainty...one walks about in it as in a formal French garden. Conscious of its progress, proud of its past, sure of its future, day science advances in light and glory. **Night science** is where we explore the unstructured realm of possible hypotheses, of ideas not yet fully fleshed out. It is creative, intuitive, serendipitous and exploratory. To again quote Jacob: > Night science wanders blind. It hesitates, stumbles, recoils, sweats, wakes with a start. Doubting everything, it is forever trying to find itself, question itself, pull itself back together. Night science is a sort of workshop of the possible where what will become the building material of science is worked out. Where hypotheses take the form of hazy sensations. Where thoughts proceed along sinuous paths, tortuous streets, most often blind alleys. Like a prisoner in a cell, it paces about, looking for a way out, a glimmer of light. Ceaselessly, it goes from hope to disappointment, from exaltation to melancholy. It is impossible to predict whether night science will ever pass to the day condition. When it happens it happens by surprise, like spontaneous generation, like thunder. What guides the mind, then, is not logic. It is instinct, intuition. It is the need to see clearly. In day science, we falsify hypotheses and observe which are left standing; in night science, we create them. In day science, we may test a hypothesis using established protocols, and we may move to neighboring ideas in small, logical steps. But ideas that are unconnected or only loosely connected are out of reach when all we rely on are established protocols and logic. This is why we often have to pop out into the world of night science, where we float between ideas that may be only loosely connected, often moving in associative leaps rather than in logical steps. Intermittently, we may pop back into the world of day science to examine the apparent merit of a night science idea in the light of day, and maybe to even submit it to the rigorous hypothesis testing at the heart of day science—before popping back out into the dream world above to continue our exploration. Night science is of course not restricted to a particular time of day, just as we can test hypotheses after 10 pm. But these two aspects are distinct frames of mind—so different that they seem like day and night. In the context of ZGE, day science: * Builds up from minimum viable examples and single node experiments * Methodically tests hypotheses by making the minimum change necessary to demonstrate a phenomena Meanwhile night science: * Tests endpoints by changing many things at once * May not have a specific, clear hypothesis. Rather just a vague intuition. Both day science and night science are critical. To come up with the best ideas we must embrace night science. To trust the resulting ideas we must embrace day science. ### Night Science [Night Science Requires Creativity](Science%20Requires%20Creativity.md). See PDF in iCloud. --- Date: 20240426 Links to: [Science at ZGE](Science%20at%20ZGE.md) Tags: References: * [François Jacob – Night Science](https://night-science.org/2019/12/23/francois-jacob/) * [Night Science](https://www.biomedcentral.com/collections/night-science) (see PDF in icloud)