Juan Luis Arsuaga, paleontologist: "Science is a method that guarantees that any scientific question will be answered someday".

Juan Luis Arsuaga has given a lecture at the University of Navarra willing to show students what is the essence of science and what is the work of the scientist. Invited by the Chair Timac Agro of the School of Sciences, Juan Luis Arsuaga has starred in the XI Albareda Lecture and has assured: "Science is not an activity, an attitude, nor is it a vision or a temperament. Science is a method that guarantees that any question, as long as it is scientific, can be and will be answered one day", he assured. "A researcher is nothing more than one who employs the scientific method as tool. When we write a article, a paper, we are employing the method."  

Going back to the scientific revolution of the Baroque, Arsuaga pointed out that research today is guide because of the mechanistic vision of science of the late 16th century promoted by Descartes, Galileo and Newton, among others, and which sees the world as a machine subject to laws, whose behavior is therefore predictable and can be formulated in mathematical terms. "The world can be understood, we can predict result, because there are laws that govern it and the scientist's work is to find out what those laws are," he added.
 

With this approach, Arsuaga urged the scientists of today and tomorrow, the more than 400 attendees present at the auditorium of the School of Sciences, to address the challenges of the future, such as the development of artificial intelligence or discovering how the brain or the human mind works, applying the scientific method. "Why do we get sick, why do we die? It is only a matter of time before the scientific method solves it," he said. 

Full Professor of Paleontology at the Complutense University of Madrid and director scientist of the Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos, Juan Luis Arsuaga has received at the University of Navarra the award Pasión por la Ciencia, which is submission at framework of the #LabMeCrazy! Science Film Festival. 

Born in Madrid in 1954, Arsuaga holds a PhD in Biological Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid, where he is Full Professor of Paleontology at School of Geological Sciences. He currently directs the Joint UCM-Carlos III Institute of Health Center for Human Evolution and Behavior; is director Scientist of the Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos; and co-directs the excavations of the Neanderthal sites of Pinilla del Valle (Madrid). Most of his scientific work at degree program has been carried out at the Atapuerca sites, project , which was awarded the award Príncipe de Asturias de research Scientific and Technical Award in 1997.