# The secret to scientific discoveries? Making mistakes

- Institution: TED
- Department: TEDxBoulder
- Speaker: Phil Plait
- Year: 2018
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Subjects: Astronomy and space
- Source: [TED](https://www.ted.com/talks/phil_plait_the_secret_to_scientific_discoveries_making_mistakes)
- Licence: [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) (Non-commercial use only, and no changed versions.)
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

Phil Plait was on a Hubble Space Telescope team of astronomers who thought they may have captured the first direct photo of an exoplanet ever taken. But did the evidence actually support that? Follow along as Plait shows how science progresses -- through a robust amount of making and correcting errors. "The price of doing science is admitting when you're wrong, but the payoff is the best there is: knowledge and understanding," he says.

## Lectures

1. [The secret to scientific discoveries? Making mistakes](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/ted/phil_plait_the_secret_to_scientific_discoveries_making_mistakes/d5af0811def9), 11 min (TED's player)