BIO 1110 - Chapter 1: What is Science?

What is Science?

• SCIENCE: Process of inquiry by which we come to discover and better understand the natural world

  • It comes from the Latin verb "to know"

  • It involves asking questions and making observations or measurements

What Can Science Do?

• Provides explanations of the natural world

  • The natural world can be measured and observed

  • Does not involve the supernatural

• Explanations are testable and falsifiable

  • FLASIFIABLE: Able to be proved to be false

• Conclusions are tentative

What is Biology?

• BIOLOGY: Scientific study of life.

  • What is life? It is not a simple, one-sentence definition

    • We recognize life mainly by what living things do

Properties of Life

1. Ordered Organization

2. Regulate internal environment

3. Growth and development

4. Enegery processing (metabolism)

5. Response to the environment

6. Reproduction

Three Domains Of Life

1. Bacteria

2. Archaea

3. Eukarya

   1. Protists

   2. Fungi

   3. Plants

   4. Animals

Major Themes In Biology

Processes of Science

• DISCOVERY SCIENCE: describes nature

• HYPOTHESIS-DRIVEN SCIENCE: explains nature

The Scientific Method

• SCIENTIFIC METHOD: a formal process of inquiry

  • HYPOTHESIS: A proposed explanation for a phenomenon or a set of observations

    • It must be specific, testable, and falsifiable

    • Leads to prediction

  • Example:

    • 1. Observation: The remote doesn't work

    • 2. Question: What's wrong?

    • 3. Hypothesis: The batteries are dead

    • 4. Prediction: with new batteries, it will work.

    • 5. Experiment: Replace the batteries

      • The experiment does not support the hypothesis > Revise

      • The experiment does support the hypothesis > Make more predictions and test

Proper Experimental Design

• TREATMENT: Any experimental condition applied to individuals

• EXPERIMENTAL GROUP: A group of individuals who are exposed to a particular treatment

• CONTROL GROUP: A group not exposed to the treatment

• VARIABLES: Characteristics of your experimental system that are subject to change

• REPLICATION: Repeating the experiment to determine the accuracy of the data

Controlling Variables

• CONTROLLING VARIABLES: Minimizes differences between a control group and an experimental group other than the treatment itself.

• INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: Variable in an experiment that is changed or manipulated as the cause or reason for an outcome

  • Changed and manipulated

  • Presumed cause

• DEPENDENT VARIABLE: Variable is an experiment that is changed or manipulated with the independent variable.

  • Is dependent on the independent variable

  • What we measure

Theories in Science

• Accumulating facts is not the goal of science

• THEORY: A comprehensive explanation supported by abundant evidence

  • Needs to be repeatedly tested

  • Board in scope

  • It is general enough to spin off new hypotheses

  • Examples: Atomic theory, Gravitational theory, Cell theory, Evolutionary theory