I think the biggest sign that children (and adults) are not natural scientists is their willingness to assert that they are right and to make up explanations for when ever they are proved wrong. There is nothing more obnoxious and anti-science than someone who argues against all evidence to the contrary that something isn’t their fault.

Or, one might say, not quite true enough. The problem is that this statement cannot be understood before one has acquired a considerable amount of knowledge that is thoroughly non-, even counter-, intuitive.

For a long time these nitpicking distinctions didn’t matter, in any obvious practically important way. But now the possibility of doing science depends on this stuff. Hence, for me, it’s a case in point for the posting.