Bio 101 Chapter 1 8 28 14 What is Science It is a way of knowing It seeks natural cause for natural phenomena Science Process Scientific method Hypotheses predictions Anatomy parts of an experiment Pseudoscience Peoples claims anecdotal data Scientists use two main approaches to learn about nature Discovery science o Often do this when we don t have enough information to come up with a hypothesis or an experiment o Uses variable OBSERVATIONS and measurements to describe science o Scientists describe some aspect of the world and use INDUCTIVE reasoning to draw general conclusions o Chimps wage war study go watch make observations general conclusions Hypothesis based science o Uses the scientific method we pose test hypothesis o Make some observations o Frame a question pose a testable hypothesis educated guess o Make a prediction based on your hypothesis o Devise ways to test the accuracy of your prediction gather info run experiments o Access the results the Data Do Data affirm or disprove hypothesis o Report your results o Control thing that doesn t change working flashlight to test the batteries All variables same except one The experiment has a control group using brown artificial snakes for comparison The experimental group is artificial snakes with the red black and yellow ring pattern of king snakes Science must be TESTABLE How do scientists draw conclusions Draw conclusions based on Data o Anecdotal evidence o Sample size statistics o Peer review Bio 101 Chapter 1 To properly evaluate a scientific claim we need to look closely at how the science was done Anecdotal evidence an informal observation that has not been systematically tested Anecdotal evidence can lead to the formulation of questions Peer review process that occurs before something is published in a science journal 9 2 14 Anecdotal evidence One person s informal observation When I drink coffee I feel more alert I lost weight with green tea pills Anecdotal evidence might lead to you to a series of hypothesis Dependent Variable The variable that you measure memory Independent Variable Variable that you are changing in some sort of way caffeine Sample Size Sample size of the experiment can strengthen our confidence in the results of the study Statistical Significance A measure of confidence that the results obtained are real rather than due to random chance How reliable is our date Real Or random chance Scientific Theories A hypothesis that has never been disproved after years of rigorous testing Close to a fact as science ever gets Epidemiology The study of patterns of disease in populations including risk factors When we can t control for everything Randomized clinical trials Hypothesis based we can control things Correlation A consistent relationship between variables CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION B c coffee drinking is correlated with the decreasing of Parkinson s does not mean that coffee drinking decreases Parkinson s