Exercise 2: Mapping a New Example onto Kuhn's Framework — Possible Solution ============================================================================== This exercise has no single correct example - the point is applying all four real stages consistently to something genuine. A worked example, using the germ theory of disease: NORMAL SCIENCE: For centuries, medicine operated under "miasma theory" - the belief that disease was caused by bad air or noxious vapors from decaying matter. Physicians worked within this framework, addressing sanitation and air quality based on that assumption. ANOMALY: Real observations began accumulating that miasma theory struggled to explain - for example, cholera outbreaks clustering around specific contaminated water sources rather than simply "bad air," and improvements in microscopy revealing real microorganisms whose role wasn't yet understood. CRISIS: Mounting real evidence, including John Snow's own famous 1854 London cholera investigation tracing an outbreak to a specific water pump, created growing real tension with the miasma framework's own ability to explain what was actually being observed. REVOLUTION: Louis Pasteur's and Robert Koch's real work in the 1860s- 1880s established germ theory - that specific microorganisms cause specific diseases - as the new paradigm, replacing miasma theory comparatively rapidly once a real, credible causal mechanism (specific pathogens) was demonstrated. ANSWER: (worked example) Normal science: miasma theory guiding medicine for centuries. Anomaly: outbreaks and microscopy findings miasma theory couldn't explain. Crisis: mounting evidence like Snow's 1854 cholera investigation. Revolution: Pasteur and Koch's real germ-theory work replacing miasma theory once a credible mechanism (specific pathogens) was established. WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER ------------------------------ This applies all four of Kuhn's real stages consistently to a genuine, distinct historical example, mirroring the chapter's own structure without simply repeating the Wegener case.