When people say that science is conservative, what they mean is that it progresses slowly and cautiously to built up certainty. Science is a tradition that typi

When people say that science is conservative, what they mean is that it progresses slowly and cautiously to built up certainty. Science is a tradition that typically progresses incrementally and is revised incrementally (I should say, there are many scientific traditions that proceed this way, not some single, grand, capital S "Science!"). When anomalies occur in the experimental results, it takes a while for them to be digested in a way that leads to model revision and then broad acceptance. Now, that isn't to say that people can't explore unexplored avenues or explore alternatives. They should, but that doesn't contradict the idea that the sciences proceed conservatively. Otherwise, you've got chaos, not science. In any case, you're typically going to profit much more by learning from a meticulously examined and fleshed out tradition than you are by starting from proverbial scratch. Science wants certainty which it why, when done properly (aye, there's the rub!), it goes to great lengths to verify things. Conservatism, contrary to widespread misconception, is not about stagnation, but about being careful and responsible with the stewardship of your hard won inheritance.