Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Daily Newsletter January 10, 2012

Daily Newsletter                                        January 10, 2012

Today's Topic:  Nature of Science

Science is something that people do, but rarely think about.  As you start on your path to becoming a biologist (and this includes medical doctors, vets, pharmacologists), it is helpful to spend some time reflecting upon what it means to be a scientist and work from a scientific perspective. 

Ultimately, why do we perform scientific investigations?  What are we trying to do?  One of the most powerful answers to this statement is that science seeks to predict and control natural phenomena.  The idea behind this is that with science we build models that help explain the workings of natural phenomena.  The more robust our models, meaning the more empirical support they possess, the better the model is at predicting or controlling a given phenomena. 

Take for instance the study of climatology.  Over the past five decades, improved sensors and computer analysis has allowed the construction of models that help to more accurately predict tornadoes and hurricanes.

One thing to remember is that in science we build models that represent our understanding of the workings of the natural world.  Scientific models are built on observable, empirical and measurable evidence, all of which are subject to the laws of reason.  The key is that scientists rely on objective evidence.

What about truth?  Humans are limited in perception, so the question arises, can we know the 'true nature' of the universe?  When it comes down to it, we can easily say that humans can not know the "TRUTH" of the universe.  Instead, we build working models that we view as approaching the truth.  We always leave room for falsifiability, because we cannot say that we have answered a problem 100%.  It is possible we did not see all the variables, or that there could be a flawed assumption.

In science we look for robust support for our models, but never say that we have "proof".  Instead, we say we have support.  Remember, a hypothesis can be falsified, but never proven (only supported).



Today's Reflection
What do the words data, theory, law and hypothesis mean to you?



Today's Challenge
For today's blog, think about biology and scientific investigation, and come up with two models that biologists use to predict and control natural phenomena.  You do not need to come up with all the science, but consider, how do we as a society know how to deal with a biological issue/problem?  In your blog, I also want you to take the word theory and answer this question:  How is the word theory used by scientists and lay people (those not trained in science)?

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