Birth pangs of an unimagined order.

Anomalies are unexpected turns of events–departures from the expected behavior–deviations from the norm; examples are .
....					Moons
					Fossils
					Quarks
These anomalies reveal the important information we may have selected to ignore.
Normal knowledge			anomaly		impetus
Earth is the center of the cosmos		Medicean moons of Jupiter			telescope
The doctrine of the four elements		oxygen fuels combustion			phlogiston
Species are fixed & unchanged since creation		finch-birds of the Galapagos			Neanderthals
Electricity is dialectical		neutrons			field-theory

 

Kuhn's (1962) theory explains that "discovery commences with the awareness of anomaly, i.e., with the recognition that nature has somehow violated the paradigm-induced expectations that govern normal science" (Kuhn, Structure, p.52). In the investigation of the anomaly Kuhn believes that either normal science progresses or a new paradigm is found.

"In all fields of science there is a residues of anomalies unexplained by the dominant theory [Normal knowledge]. That does not mean the prevailing theory is wrong or that alternative theories are right. It just means that more work needs to be done to bring these anomalies into the accepted paradigm."

Michael Shermer, Scientific American, April 2011, p. 90.

Examples of revolutions in thought brought to life (engendered) by carefully accounting for anomalies

Darwin

Darwinian Revolution

Von Humboldt

Plate Tectonics

Newton

Galileo

Einstein

Bohr

Feynman

Gell-Mann

The world is beyond our comprehension of its antiquity and complexity.
		Ammonite, Devonian fossil
	To hold reality in your two hands.

Next.

The anomaly of waves: all waves move, or do they?

Any deviation from the anticipated or regularly observed order, pattern of events, or standard procedure is an anomaly. [16th century Latin from a Greek word for unusual, peculiar or irregular.]

Here are three varieties of anomalies:

Physical | Biological | Social

Physical:

Neutron	Proton	Hydrogen atom

Material existence at our level and scope of perception is the result of neutron instability and unbound neutron decay into hydrogen–the most abundant element in this universe.

Anomalous sea surface oscillations

Oceanography & geophysics
The La Niña, El Niño pattern, known as the Southern Ocean oscillation (ENSO) of the waters in the Southern hemisphere due to changes in sea surface temperatures and the delay or onset of East Indian precipitation events (monsoon).
Here cooler temperatures are purple & blue.	The oscillation is occurring with greater frequency.

Biological

Species, like individuals, are distinct and separate entities.

Lichen, a specimen foliose lichen shown above, is an anomalous life form because it is the fusion of fungus and algae.

Social: risks and high hazard areas

What is a hurricane track?

Hurricanes are an anomalous means of redistributing heat and moisture from warmer to cooler areas on the planetary surface.

The Quadrupeds.

Turtles possess a body plan that is an anomaly when looking at all four legged vertebrate species.

Mayr | Thomas | Wilson | Hardin | Darwin | Margulis | Steingraber | Tattersall | Carr | Keller | Watson

Darwinian Revolution