> But the model we have of science from elementary and high school doesn’t give us room for the random, ephemeral things that come into play in actual experimen

> But the model we have of science from elementary and high school doesn’t give us room for the random, ephemeral things that come into play in actual experimental work. Our model is methods equal result, every time, even though jiggling your foot a little bit to get the feeling back may have somehow made your small molecule production have less binding affinity or something. That wasn't my experience, in either high school physics or undergrad electronics. I hated keeping a lab book (just wanted to 'do' & see results I suppose) but the emphasis was always on recording as much as possible to understand what's important and what happened etc. when you review later. I suppose looking through another lens you can call that an expectation of repeatability, but it's just a matter of emphasis isn't it? You know it might be hard to repeat, so you record as much as possible about the setup & process to remove variables and control what needs to be controlled (especially if you don't yet understand what that is, or the full scope).