In sixth grade science class we were told that it was impossible for a bumble bee to fly, according to all of the knowledge available in aerodynamics at the time. When you measured the size of the bumble bee’s wings, computed the speed of the wings and weighed the bumble bee, mathematically it was impossible for the creature to fly.
As scientists became better able to study insect flight, including with high-speed photography, they discovered that a bumble bee’s wings don’t behave like the fixed wings of an airplane. Their movement creates lift in ways the earlier calculations didn’t account for. The science eventually caught up and declared that the bumble bee could indeed fly—much to the relief of bumble bees all around the planet.
We see this in healthcare all the time. Practitioners make observations and researchers tell them what they are doing has not been proven. However, “not proven” does not mean “wrong”. The very first step in the scientific process is to make an observation. The “bumble bee” articles are about those observations.
