What
is science? Science is a body of knowledge based
on the study of nature and its physical setting. The purpose of science is
scientific inquiry—the development of explanations. Scientific inquiry is a
creative process as well as a process involving observation and experimentation.
Scientific Methods
The scientific method is a way to ask and answer scientific questions by making
observations and doing experiments.
The steps of
the scientific method are to: 1-Ask
a Question 2-Do
Background Research 3-Construct
a Hypothesis 4-Test
Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment 5-Analyze
Your Data and Draw a Conclusion 6-Communicate
Your Results
It is
important for your experiment to be a fair test. A "fair test" occurs
when you change only one factor (variable) and keep all other conditions the
same.
How does
science expand knowledge? Science is guided by research that results in a constant reevaluation
of what is known. This reevaluation process leads to new knowledge. It
also leads to new questions that require more research.
What happens when scientists disagree? Scientists welcome debate.
Disagreements among scientists often lead to further investigation. Science
advances when new discoveries are added to the existing body of
knowledge. For example, scientific research has dramatically increased our
understanding of HIV.
What
system of measurement do scientists use? Scientists use the metric system of
measurement. The metric system uses units with divisions that are
powers of ten. In 1960, a system of unit standards of the metric system was
established. This system is called the International System of Units, or SI. In
biology, the SI units you will use most often are meter (length), gram (mass),
liter (volume), and second (time).
Forensic: Many popular television shows about
crime are based on forensics—the field that uses science to investigate crime.
The media is filled with information on medical advances, new scientific
discoveries, and new technologies.
Kinds
of Information : Scientific
information can usually be broken down into two main types—quantitative or qualitative. In quantitative research, results are compared by
using numbers.
Imagine an experiment to see when different materials begin to melt. The
temperature at which wax, iron, and glass each begins to melt is different. Temperatures
often are measured in degrees, which are numbers on a scale. These temperatures
are a type of quantitative data in quantitative
research.
Qualitative
research is based on observation. It is also called descriptive research because it describes
scientists’ observations when they do their research. If a scientist wanted to
figure out how a beaver builds a dam, numbers would not be very helpful. The
scientist would observe the beaver and see how the dam is built. Then the
scientist would describe, in detail, all the steps the beaver takes to build
the dam.
Science
and Society:
Scientific research
often provides society with important information. What we learn from scientific
research cannot be defined as good or bad. Ethics must play a role in deciding
how the information will be used. Ethics are the moral principles and values held
by humans. Ethics are
how we decide what is right or wrong, good or bad. Suppose scientists develop a new
vaccine to cure a disease, but they can only produce 1000 doses each year.
Ethics help society decide who should receive those doses. Society as a whole
must take responsibility for making sure that scientific discoveries are used
in an ethical way. Some
scientific study is done only to learn new things. This type of science is
called pure science. Pure science is not done so that the results can be used
for a specific need. The research is filed away for later use. Science that
solves a problem is technology. Technology means using scientific research to meet society’s
needs or solve its problems. Technology has helped reduce the amount of manual labor needed
to make and raise
crops. It has also
helped cut down on
environmental pollution.
How do
scientists deal with inconsistent data?
When
observations or data are not consistent with current understanding, scientists
investigate the inconsistencies. For example, some early biologists suggested
that bats had traits that were more similar to those of mammals than those of birds,
as shown in the figure below. This idea led to further investigation. The new
evidence confirmed that bats are more closely related to mammals than to birds.
In pseudoscience, observations that are not consistent with beliefs are
ignored.
Answer
the following questions:
1- How
does science expand knowledge?
2- What happens when scientists disagree?
3- What system of measurement do scientists
use?
4- What does forensic mean?
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