Brooklyn College BIOL 1010 : Lab Notes
The Scientific Method
What is Science?
Learn to recognize word parts. They often give you a clue to the meaning of the word.
{ - sci - means knowledge}
Science defined.
The textbook definition of science:
- The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.
Lets simplify that absolutely correct, but wordy definition a bit:
- Science can simply be man's attempt to explain the world around him.
Even more basic:
- Science is a method of thinking (or the scientific method)
What is biology?
{ - bio - meaning life; -logy meaning study of}
- Biology is the scientific investigation of life
The scientific method
A process, consisting of a series of steps, where observations inspire questions in an attempt to seek explainations.
This process is often explained through a flow-chart of thought:
The hypothesis
Defined:
- An educated guess based on previous knowledge.
The key to a well thought-out experiment is the hypothesis.
All hypotheses must be able to be falsified.
If you cannot falsify your hypothesis, then you cannot test it.
Check out this example of a hypothesis:
- Light is required by green plants for proper growth
We can falsify this hypothesis:
- Falsify the light - we can try growing the plants in both light and dark conditions and compare the results
Now here is an example of a bad hypothesis called the "zoo hypothesis":
- The earth has been visited by extraterrestrial civilizations whose members have left no signs of their visit
There is no possible way of falsifying any portion of this hypothesis, making it untestable. therefore this can never be disproven or proven.