What is Curiosity?
Here's a curious situation: scientists are debating. . . well, arguing. . . about the definition of curiosity. This may seem a bit silly, but it's not. Unless there is a standard, broadly accepted definition of a phenomena such as "what is an atom?", it becomes very difficult to conduct research that can be replicated by other researchers. And replication of an experiment achieving the same results is critical to verifying the research as accurate. As writers, we all depend on standard definitions of words, relying heavily on both a precise definition and the implied definition. What is curiosity? It's a word I've used for years assuming that my readers understand what I mean. But do we? These sorts of arguments are common in science. It is entertaining to read about the twenty some years of debates between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein about quantum mechanics. Einstein was awarded his one Nobel Prize for identifying light as disc...