Why is observation important in science?

Question

Why is observation important in science?

Answer 1

Without observation, there is no science because there is nothing to explain.

Before the invention of modern observational and experimental science about five hundred years ago, science consisted of merely repeating what the ancient Greeks and Romans wrote.  The most fundamental of all human sciences, anatomy only became a science after dissection started.  Physiology as a science really started with the observation by Sir William Harvey that blood circulates.

The bottom line is that science without observation is just mysticism.

Answer 2

I would have to say Einstein's observation that spacetime is curved by matter, and that free-falling objects are moving along locally straight paths in curved spacetime.

between that and how the human immune system reacts to foreign objects

Answer 3

If you're not observing anything, then you're just making things up.

You have to observe that something happens before you try to come up with an explanation for it, then you have to do more observing to make sure your explanation is right.