How Discoveries Are Made

The Washington Post today, in its article about the change in Pluto's classification states:

The controversy over how to define Pluto began when scientists realized it is much smaller than it was thought to be when it was discovered in 1930. Early data indicating that it was large enough to disturb the orbits of Neptune and Uranus turned out to be observational errors.

I had thought for decades that the discovery of Pluto was a triumph of scientific accuracy, but apparently it was as accidental as Columbus' discovery of America. It thus falls in the same category as Fleming's discovery of penicillin -- which (if I recall correctly, and the information that I had was right in the first place) was actually a rediscovery of something found earlier but not exploited, and was due to his observing places free of bacterial growth on a dirty Petri dish, and looking for the cause of the anomaly.

I guess these examples simply show the importance of observation in science.

Two seemingly opposing proverbs which come to mind:

* Don't just sit there, do something!
* Don't just do something, think!