Scientists are typically good at making scientific progress, but not particularly good at articulating what the progress consists of. - Alan Chalmers

Science is widely esteemed. Apparently it is a widely held belief that there is something special about science and its methods.

Establishing by observation that there is just one black swan falsifies "all swans are white". This is an unexceptional and undeniable point. However, using it as grounds to support a falsificationist philosophy of science is not as straightforward as it might seem.

It should be no news to anyone that the perceptual judgements of individuals can be unreliable for a range of reasons. The challenge, in science, is to arrange the observable situation in such a way that the reliance on such judgements is minimised if not eliminated.