# The pursuit of ignorance

- Institution: TED
- Department: TED2013
- Speaker: Stuart Firestein
- Year: 2013
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Subjects: Biology, Teaching and learning
- Source: [TED](https://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_firestein_the_pursuit_of_ignorance)
- 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)

What does real scientific work look like? As neuroscientist Stuart Firestein jokes: It looks a lot less like the scientific method and a lot more like "farting around ... in the dark." In this witty talk, Firestein gets to the heart of science as it is really practiced and suggests that we should value what we don't know -- or "high-quality ignorance" -- just as much as what we know.

## Lectures

1. [The pursuit of ignorance](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/ted/stuart_firestein_the_pursuit_of_ignorance/9802adb7ceb0), 19 min (TED's player)