The Scientific Method

The Scientific Method

During the Scientific Revolution, a movement that took place in Europe since the Renaissance, the ways of interpreting nature underwent radical changes that eventually established the basis for modern scientific conceptions.

Today, in Biology, scientists conduct two main types of scientific research: discovery science and hypothesis-based science.

Discovery science is related to the revelation of new data, materials, or information in a scientific study, which will lead to new knowledge. In the case of Biology, this science involves the description of living things or biological processes, such as the descriptive study leaf anatomy of a plant or the observation of the reproductive behavior of an animal.

In contrast, hypothesis-based science, which relies on the scientific method, involves the search for explanations for phenomena, following rigorous procedures that need to be performed to produce scientific knowledge, such as analyzing the influence of light on the growth of a plant. 

In general, the scientific method has the following logical steps:

1. Observation of a natural phenomenon.

2. Elaboration of a question about the observed phenomenon.

3. Formulation of a hypothesis to answer the question.

4. Proposing deductions from the hypothesis.

5. Testing the deductions through additional observations or experiments.

6. Analysis of the results and conclusion regarding the validity of the hypothesis.

The first phase of the scientific method starts with the observation of the phenomena of nature. From this observation, the scientist must formulate an original question about the observed phenomenon.

This doubt (or questioning) is essential to the scientific procedure because it is from this that the scientist can elaborate a hypothesis based on previous experiences and data available from the science of discovery.

From the hypothesis, the scientist can perform a deduction to check the validity of his guess. This is a prediction about the results he should expect if the hypothesis is true.

After making a presumption about the hypothesis, the scientist must then test the inference with new observations or using a scientific experiment, which is an artificial situation created to verify whether the deductions predicted from a hypothesis can be confirmed or not.

After experimenting, the scientist must analyze the results obtained in both groups. And then make a conclusion, which can either confirm or deny the hypothesis. In the first case, the conclusion indicates that the hypothesis about the question was correct. Otherwise, a new hypothesis can be formulated to explain the question about the observed natural phenomenon (which would require new observations or experiments).

Experimental group and control group

During the testing of some hypotheses, it is common to perform controlled experiments using two groups: experimental and control. 

We can say that the experimental group is the one in which only the factor to be tested is changed, leaving all the other factors unchanged. On the other hand, the control group must be subjected to the same factors as the experimental group, without any changes.

With these procedures, you can test only one factor at a time and compare the results of the two groups. If a difference between these results occurs, it can be attributed to the factor tested. Otherwise, you can conclude that the factor tested does not interfere with the process. 

Furthermore, there must be the possibility of replicating the experiments, which can also be performed by other scientists, to test the inference.