Isaac Newton was Wrong

Well, about a lot of things, but this is something that most people don't think of. I recently read this story. I'm not sure if its true or illustrative, but I don't think it really matters.

A little girl was helping her mother in the kitchen. She wrinkled her nose, looked up at her mother and asked "Mommy, why do you always cut off the end of the ham before you cook it?" The mother paused for a second, looked earnestly at her daughter and said "I don't know. That's the way my mother always did it." The next time they took a trip to Grandma's house the little girl tugged at her grandmother's apron and asked "Why do you cut off the end of the ham before you cook it?" The grandmother's response was the same. "Well, that's what my mother always did." The great-grandmother wasn't alive anymore, but there was a great uncle who still came to thanksgiving dinner. That November, the little girl made sure to ask her uncle why his sister would cut off the end of the ham before cooking it. He thought long and hard, and finally began to chuckle, "Well dear, the pan we had was too small for the whole ham, so she would cut off the end to make it fit."

One of Isaac Newton's contributions to the scientific field is told as "Why is not the question, but how" This separated philosophers and theologians from scientists. However, I think that today, especially in the fields of biology and chemistry, it is just as important to ask why as it is to ask how. By knowing why a certain step in the synthesis exists, not just the recipe for how to make the compound, you will understand your system more fully which, if nothing else, makes you more efficient. In making my own bread instead of buying it, which I've started doing, this is important as well. Today, I saved two loaves of bread by not adding the salt directly as the recipe requested which would have killed the yeast but combining it with half the flour and adding that after the water-yeast-flour mixture had rested for twenty minutes. Maybe there are two questions, How and Why!