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Rather than being a detriment to science, uncertainty actually helps it advance. And understanding the role that uncertainty plays in science is extremely helpful for avoiding four serious dangers. First, appreciating uncertainty in science helps one to avoid being dogmatically certain. Good science is always open to revision in the face of new evidence. Second, appreciating uncertainty in science allows one to avoid the mistaken view that all theories and ideas are equally plausible. Third, since uncertainty is an inherent feature of science, appreciating its role helps one better understand science. Fourth, with a proper appreciation of uncertainty in science, it is much harder for one to be deceived about things like the link between tobacco smoke and cancer or the reality of climate change. In the end, uncertainty in science helps us to make the best decisions we can while encouraging us to continually seek new discoveries.

Explaining phenomena is a primary goal of science. Consequently, it is unsurprising that gaining a proper understanding of the nature of explanation is an important goal of science education. In order to properly understand explanation, however, it is not enough to simply consider theories of the nature of explanation. Properly understanding explanation requires grasping the relation between explanation and understanding, as well as how explanations can lead to scientific knowledge. This article examines the nature of explanation, its relation to understanding, and how explanations are used to generate scientific knowledge via inferences to the best explanation. Studying these features and applications of explanation not only provides insight into a concept that is important for science education in its own right, but also sheds light on an aspect of recent debates concerning the so-called consensus view of nature of science (NOS). Once the relation between explanation, understanding, and knowledge is clear, it becomes apparent that science is unified in important ways. Seeing this unification provides some support for thinking that there are general features of NOS of the sort proposed by the consensus view and that teaching about these general features of NOS should be a goal of science education.

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