Certainty feels like solid ground, but in science it often functions as a ceiling. The philosopher Isabelle Stengers, drawing from Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy, made a case that scientific knowledge isn't a collection of established facts so much as a living process of 'obligations' — each confirmed result creates a debt to what it still cannot explain. She called this the 'ecology of practices': disciplines aren't just methods, they're communities with habits of ignoring certain questions. The practical consequence is quietly unsettling. The things your field has agreed not to argue about anymore are probably where the most interesting work is hiding. Pick one assumption in your work that everyone treats as settled. Not wrong — just unexamined. Treat it like a debt you inherited rather than a foundation you built. That reframing alone can open a door.

What is one thing in your work that you explain to newcomers as 'just how it's done' — and when did you last personally verify why?

Drawing from Process Philosophy / Philosophy of Science — Isabelle Stengers (The Invention of Modern Science, 1993)