Science and society

Dr.Humphrey's quote in class today: 


In most countries' legal systems (actually he said US, but I think its safe to extrapolate to others too), you are innocent unless proven guilty.


In science however, you are guilty unless you can prove your innocence. 


What this means is, when you are discovering something unseen by others, inventing something not done before, there are so many unknown errors/deviations that can creep in, that unless you acknowledge their presence through quantification or take care of them in your design, you are doing bad science.


As an afterthought I wonder if there can really be anything called bad science. It can be science or it can be trash.  If its bad science, it wont be long before its proven its trash or its swept happily away under carpet and forgotten forever.