gaw- I am not Joe if you were talking to me. And i do not think my style is similar.
My understanding is, that getting the scientific knowledge from torah comes through learning Torah lishma. Their is many different madreigos of Torah Lishma. The Nefesh Hachaim in Shaar daled (should be around perek9) writes how you are ableto reach the level of Istakel boiraysa Ubara alma- In other words the torah serves as a blue print of the world so the metzious will be pashut. Now this is just taloi in Torah lishmah, something in which all the tannoim and ammoraim did and even if you were to say the mesorah of torah was not so strong the understanding of science could still be perfect