Hi, this is Julián from MinuteEarth.
And you may have noticed that my head is huge.
I’m testing my hypothesis that increasing the size of our stick figures’ heads will
increase likes on our videos; let’s check on the results of this rigorously controlled,
totally real study.
Ugh, no effect at all.
In science - not having the data support your hypothesis - in other words, being wrong - is
called a “null result.”
And, honestly, being wrong can feel like failing, as if I have nothing useful to report back
to the MinuteEarth team.
But, finding “nothing” - or no effect - is still finding “something,” because
you have knowledge you didn’t have before.
Sometimes, this new information means that what you thought was true isn’t.
For example, doctors have long assumed that if a pregnant person with certain risk factors
moved around too much, the baby could be born prematurely.
So doctors often recommended staying in bed, sometimes for months at a time - even though
that comes with its own risks.
But over the years, study after study has found that bedrest has no effect on premature
birth, clearly putting the rationale for bedrest to rest.
And null results can also rule out futile avenues of research.
For decades, physicists have been trying to directly detect dark matter, the elusive stuff
that likely accounts for most of the matter in our universe.
That elusiveness - not its color - is why it’s called “dark” - I mean, we don’t
even know what size the particles are.
But we’re getting closer, thanks to null results.
Some dark matter detectors are calibrated to find particles of a certain size, so each
time they fail to detect anything, scientists can eliminate that size as a possibility,
adjust their models and equipment, and narrow the scope of their search.
It’s kind of like looking for a lost phone - even if you don’t find it where you look,
you learn where it isn’t, letting you focus your efforts elsewhere.
If and when scientists finally directly detect dark matter, it will have been made possible
by the many previous experiments that found “nothing.”
Null results don’t always have giant impacts like unlocking the secrets of the universe
or saving pregnant people.
In fact, null results usually are pretty dull results...sometimes you just learn that bigger
heads don’t increase likes, or, as a real study found that eating chocolate doesn’t
make you smarter.
But being wrong is far from failing - after all, you’re still learning something new,
and science is all about increasing our understanding of the world around us.
So celebrate those null results - just don’t get a big head about it.
This video was sponsored by Patrick Olson’s aptly titled new album Music For Scientists.
The whole album is a fascinating exploration of the relationship between art and science,
and the song “The Idea” focuses on the process of testing ideas in science, being
wrong, and having to – as the lyrics state – “rework the formula.”
In fact, we reworked the baseline of that song to create the background music for the
video you just watched!
To hear the song - and see the music video for it - click on the link in the description
and let them know that MinuteEarth sent you!