The influenza epidemic during 1918 terrified everyone, from the most uneducated child to the most knowledgeable scientist. This flu swept over America at a frightening speed and killed masses of people, with no discernible cure. This was a time when scientist were uncertain about how to solve this problem, for it was up to them to save people from this unseen horror. Uncertainty is not a stranger to a good scientist, as stated by John M. Berry. He says that scientist must venture into this unknown in order to find new knowledge. These ventures may lead in success or failure, but it is those first steps that distinguish the magnificent and daring scientists from the meek and timid scientists that never make any discoveries. Berry uses two main tools to convey this thought of scientists and uncertainties. He uses historical background and analogies in order to show the reader than scientist must step into the unknown in order to make new discoveries.
    Berry starts his essay off with historical background in the second paragraph. He quotes French scientist Claude Bernard: "Science teaches us to doubt." This doubt is the doubt that all notions previously believed true have the chance of not being true. Berry further explores this thought by saying that "a scientist must accept the fact that all his or her work, even beliefs, may break apart upon the sharp object of a single laboratory finding." Scientist must be willing to "embrace" the uncertainty of what they are finding. In other words, Berry suggest that scientists must leave their beliefs and ideas at the laboratory door because whatever is found during an experiment will be law. The findings of such experiments will be what is true, it will discredit everything that contradicts it, even if that was previously thought correct. This is why "Einstein refused to accept his own theory until his predictions were tested [in this way] one must seek out findings." Even great scientists like Einstein, one of the most brilliant minds of our time, refuse to accept anything that is not proven and will accept anything that is. For instance, if someone designed an experiment that proved that the sky was not in fact blue, a scientist would believe it if the experiment was sound. By showing that great scientific minds of the past need to have experiments, Berry also shows how important it is for scientist to venture into the unknown to create experiments to prove their new knowledge is true.
    Berry also uses multiple analogies in order to emphasize his thought that experiments are needed for new knowledge. Berry's first analogy is of a scientist on a frontier. The image that comes to mind is of a lone cowboy facing the unknown plains of the New World. To Berry, this is the scientist who finds cures and solves problems. Behind the scientist are the old ways of thinking and ahead of him is the unknown knowledge that will blow all old thoughts away. He then changes the analogy: "The best among them move deep into a wilderness region where they know almost nothing, where the very tools and techniques needed to clear the wilderness, to bring order to it, do not exist." This analogy shows how truly alone a scientist is when he or she is on the brink of new discovery. There are no roads, only chaos. Coming back to the reason why Berry wrote this paper, the influenza caused a great panic, and panic creates chaos. But the scientist makes order out of the madness eventually. He or she organizes the information. The scientist then decides what he or she wants from the information. Then, the scientist devises a way to obtain the information. Again, Berry uses an analogy: "A shovel can dig up dirt but cannot penetrate a rock. Would a pick be best, or dynamite...is there another way about getting information about what the rock holds?...Would analyzing the water passing over the rock reveal anything useful? How would one analyze it?" This is the thought process of the scientist in the midst of uncertainties. Eventually, the scientist discovers what is in the rock, after many months or years of various experiments, some in success, some in failure. By using the analogies of the frontier, the wilderness, and the rock, Berry conveys the importance of new knowledge and how experiments are needed to discover this new knowledge.
    Berry uses historical background an various analogies to convey that experiments is very important to finding out new information on a subject, which is just as important. In the case of the Spanish influenza, Berry suggests that scientists take that leap of faith and conduct experiments in order to stop this invisible killer. The scientists take his advice thankfully, and discover a cure. Berry wants the reader to know that new knowledge is needed in order to find solutions when the old knowledge does not work, and that new knowledge is only found through experimentation.