Steampunk Data Science
How did scientists make sense of data before statistics and computing? This essay will explore this question by focusing on the discovery of vitamins, which occurred just before the advent of modern statistical methodology and was one of the most transformative findings in the history of nutrition science. The vitamin discovery was a haphazard but ultimately productive approach to finding undeniable effects through diverse investigative methods, creative experimentation, and learning from failures. It was also characterized by precisely the features that scientific critics decry today: failed replications, contradictory findings, sloppy experimental protocols, and outright erroneous conclusions. This story highlights the futility of standardization and normalization in data science, reminding us how scientific insight typically begins with confusion and contradiction, with clarity emerging only through the assembly of scattered puzzle pieces.