It's said by Cave Johnson — an character in Portal2. Full voice line is:
"Just a heads up: We're gonna have a superconductor turned up full
blast and pointed at you for the duration of this next test. I'll be
honest, we're throwing science at the wall here to see what sticks. No
idea what it'll do. Probably nothing. Best-case scenario, you might
get some superpowers. Worst case, some tumors, which we'll cut out."
I don't understand throwing science at the wall. In my opinion, what we throw should be a real thing (a ball, a stone), but science is an abstract concept, how could we throw it at the wall? And how could science (or something) stick to the wall?
Please give me some hints to understand that.
Best Answer
This figure of speech comes from a test to see if spaghetti is cooked. You take some spaghetti out of the pan and throw it at the wall. If it sticks to the wall then it's cooked.
(Do not actually use this test. It doesn't work well and it makes a mess.)
So when you throw something at a wall to see what sticks, you are testing something to find out if it has the quality you're looking for.
'Science' is being used to collectively describe all the inventions and ideas they have at Aperture Science. They are testing them (throwing at the wall) to see which ones work (stick).