[AndrewC]

If you don't think that the unexpected result is the most delightful thing to a scientist, then you understand nothing about science, nothing at all.

Yes, it means more looking, but it also means the repudiation of the theory that makes it "unexpected".

It is not often that the audience at a scientific meeting gasps in amazement during a talk. But that is what happened recently when researchers revealed that they had deleted huge chunks of the genome of mice without it making any discernable difference to the animals.

[Physicist]

Yes, it means more looking, but it also means the repudiation of the theory that makes it "unexpected".

Theory didn't make it unexpected; prejudice alone did. High-temperature superconductors didn't overthrow the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of superconductivity, but boy, howdy, was that ever a shock. It's revelations like that that make being a scientist worthwhile.