About the science I use

Dr. Jules Crane, Professor of Zoology, Cerritos Community College, Norwalk, CA, taught that science is a self-correcting body of knowledge and, wherever possible, we should both use the most basic science we can and learn as much about a topic as we can. While not perfect, I will do my best to correct my knowledge quickly, stick to the basic sciences, and stay as broad as I can.

There are many theories in the field of HRO, safety, and reliability so I must use some kind of guideline to identify theories for this blog. The theory must explain how an 18-year-old can function in a manner consistent with HRO and must also be easily understood by the novice. Whenever possible I would like to see more than one researcher using a theory (this does not include colleagues and students of the theory’s creator). I like to stay as close as possible to the basic sciences and use concepts, definitions, and principles from the basic sciences. The perfect example of this is the concept of culture that, in HRO, safety, business, and education, strays mightily from the definition and usage of sociologists and anthropologists.

A word about statistics. I am not opposed to statistical analysis and probability calculations. But the data and system must be random and independent. In the environment of processes, entrainment, and cascading failure, the initiating event may be random and independent but consequent events are not. One increases the probability (or is it possibility?) of the next.



As much as possible I like to combine multiple fields of science such as physics and neuroanatomy or chemistry and psychology. If a concept is true in more than one field of science it is more reliable to me for use in this blog.

I hope this will make the blog useful to people from novice to expert and keep the blog from becoming a battleground of theories. After all, what you read here must explain yesterday or be used tomorrow and not change at the whim of a new theory. Lives depend upon it.