Scientific Fundamentalism and the True Nature of Science Scientism the fundamentalism belief that science can do no wrong and will ultimately answer any question worth answering while in the process saving humankind as a bonus o Example Edward Teller s father of the H Bomb advocacy of using the hydrogen bomb to aid in road construction and in dredging of harbors or canals remove mountains in the way However both scientism and anti science sentiments are sides of the same coin blind commitment to a particular ideology come what may What is science and how does it function Science is not a body of knowledge rather the scientific body of knowledge is actually the product of science but not science itself So Science is a method used to uncover and provisionally explain observations about the world as well to predict future observations How best to explain the scientific method Even scientists find it difficult to explain the scientific method in a concise method Young scientists really learn and understand the scientific method in an apprenticeship type situation example learning by doing under an expert Pigiucci s description 2002 of the scientific method how we gain a better understanding of the general principles underlying the functioning of the universe 1 Observations of specific facts or phenomena 2 Formulation of generalizations about such phenomena 3 Prediction of casual hypotheses relating different phenomena 4 Testing of the casual hypotheses by means of predictions further observation and experimentation this is the essence of science The scientific method is based on two fundamental well founded assumptions what scientist believe universe 1 A naturalistic explanation is sufficient to account for the functioning of the 2 The universe can be understood through logic and rational thinking Scientists accept the following two types of evidence 1 Confirmation of hypotheses by data strengthens their validity 2 Repeated and widespread inconsistency of data with a hypothesis eventually leads to the rejection of that hypothesis When formulating a hypothesis scientists attempt to come up with the simplest explanation that accounts for the data This principle known as Occam s razor or parsimony is equivalent to saying that science attempts to make the fewest assumptions when explaining how the world works So science is about very likely maybes never about absolute truths Both creationists and scientific fundamentalists scientism advocates find this disturbing o Example possible creationist take lack of absolute scientific truths cause condones moral relativism The only reason the above mentioned aspects of the scientific method can be justified is that they work There is no other external or internal justification of science available to us The scientific search for better explanations of reality has met with a degree of success that is unparalleled by any alternative method that has been employed example religion mysticism pseudoscience This is exemplified by the technological advancements and adequacy of the explanations that have been produced by the scientific method The Limits of Science 1 Science is not about final ultimate answers Rather it is about provisional answers to which we can attach probabilities likelihoods in a Bayesian sense 2 Science cannot draw conclusions about things it cannot measure or manipulate experimentally a Example Comparative anthropologists compare how different human societies choose their moral rules but they are not in a position to describe good or bad in an absolute sense to a specific set of rules 3 Science and scientists are committed to unemotional judgments by their choice to understand thing rationally 4 Science is a limited bounded enterprise a Example science is about uncovering the fundamental mechanisms underlying the functioning of the world rather than accumulating detailed knowledge on every single occurrence in the world III Evolution s Utility Evolution is a very well supported scientific theory but why should we study evolution 1 It illuminates all fields of biological study the central organizing theory of biology is that all life on Earth had a common ancestor 2 We can learn more about our origins 3 Evolutionary Biology has practical applications in Agriculture traditional breeding and genetic engineering Natural products taq polymerase PCR discovered by prediction from evolutionary theory of adaptation Conservative and environmental management Health sciences Example AIDS research treatment strategies antibiotic resistance Fig 23 3 AIDS is one of the most deadly diseases in recorded history Prediction By 2020 it will have claimed 90 million lives AIDS and AZT Can evolutionary principles explain the changeable effectiveness of AZT on AIDS progression AIDS Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome HIV Human immunodeficiency virus causes AIDS AZT azidothymidine nucleotide analog of thymidine HIV causes AIDS by infecting and co opting a particular of T lymphocyte CD4 helper T cell which ultimately debilitates the entire immune system Therefore AIDS does not kill directly opportunistic infections that are unchecked by a compromised immune system are directly responsible How dos HIV take over CD4 helper T cell and macrophages The HIV virus envelope phospholipid membrane proteins binds to 2 receptors CD4 and a co receptor on a cell surface The virus envelope fuses with the cell membrane and the contents of the virion two identical RNA genomes and 3 enzymes enter the cells HIV is a retrovirus RNA proteins RNA reverse transcription DNA transcription mRNA translation Viral Proteins The RNA DNA step is facilitated by a viral enzyme call reverse transcriptase RT The newly synthesized viral DNA is incorporated in the host cells genome at a transcriptionally active site by the host cell s ribosomes The HIV precursor proteins are cleaved by the viral enzyme known as protease to New virus particles virions subsequently bud off of the host cell which releases virions produce mature viral proteins into the bloodstream How does AZT initially slow down the progression of AIDS If the viral reverse transcriptase molecule incorporates a molecule of AZT instead of normal thymidine into the growing viral DNA strand that strand s synthesis is Therefore no new virions are produced by that particular strand permanently halted Effectiveness persistence Background information 1 HIV reverse transcriptase is very error prone a lot of mutants produced a RT