It then tries to put those results into language, first mathematical then ordinary. Theoretical science may then be bold enough to predict the chain of causation often of confidence. These two, practical and theoretical science, are like Er s and Log s, twins who made creation worth something. The primary tool of theoretical science is the theory. It is a reflection of the universe, an image, an idea, a filter.
Theories are real only in the mind and only as valid as the mind that accepts it.
In the hands of a true scientist, a theory is necessarily fragile, shattering as knowledge matures and new evidence presents itself. Science is concerned with what the senses have perceived, aided or not. This became a difficult proposition with the Heisenberg Theorem of Uncertainty. The observer is necessarily bound up with the observed, the tools and filters affecting the conclusions of the experiment. If the scientist were to measure an electron, the tool would employ a photon.