If the tidepool is our only source of data about the ocean, then our understanding is necessarily limited. Analyzing the tidepool, because it is part of the ocean, provides data that can form the basis of theories about the ocean. No rational person would claim a complete understanding of the ocean without the opportunity to get data direct from the ocean. Even understanding the tidepool is, of course, subject to continued revision as science seeks to refine and enhance the known truths about the tidepool - including the exciting overturn of early things believed true!
Having worked in the field of biomedical sciences for over 35 years, my one observation regarding this analogy is that (in my humble opinion) our collective scientific knowledge/observations for all the sciences is less than 1 drop of that tidal pool. I will go even further and say that despite all of our scientific studies, experiments, observations, etc. our collective knowledge accounts for less than 1 grain of sand of the sands in all of the desserts, oceans, beaches, etc. combined. The more we think we know, the more we really don’t know.
Pete
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