How to science

How to science

via ScienceSunday 

Hopefully, this should clear up many misconceptions on the scientific method, along with our favorite post on the definition of a theory (no, it’s never going to “graduate” into a Law!) http://goo.gl/4xqQIf

Fareed Zakaria explains some ideas behind conspiracy theories.

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/05/why-we-believe-conspiracy-theories/

#ScienceSunday

Originally shared by Ramin Honary

It amazes how many people don’t understand this.

        Science is a process guided by simple set of rules scientists follow to make sure that what they do actually works. We have learned over the past four centuries that these are the bare minimum common sense rules to follow. Anything less and you will make mistakes and mislead people into believing falsehoods. Cold hard experience has taught us this over the generations.

        Too many people believe science is like some kind of religion, where people just hypothesize and decide that their hypotheses are true, and believe in these hypotheses dogmatically. Evolution and climate change have been specifically targeted by politicians who want people to believe this about science, and all of science suffers as a result of this misinformation. All of science suffers when more and more people misunderstand what it is.

Quote:

1. Make an Observation — “What is happening?”

        An Observation is when you notice something in the world around you and decide you want to find out more about it.

2. Define the Question — “Why is this happening?”

        Defining the question creates an idea that can be tested using a series of Experiments.

3. Form a Hypothesis — “I think this happens because…”

        A Hypothesis is a statement that uses a few Observations, without any experimental evidence, to define why something happens.

4. Perform Experiments — “Let’s test my Hypothesis…”

        An Experiment is a series of tests to see if your Hypothesis is correct or incorrect. For each test, record the data you discover.

5. Analyze the Data — “Was my Hypothesis right?”

        Analyzing data takes what you found in your Experiments and compares it to your Hypothesis. If needed, perform another Experiment to gather better data.

6. Conclusion — “Experiments show my Hypothesis was…”

        Forming a Conclusion presents the Experimental Data and explains how it supports or rejects the Hypothesis. Often, Scientists will take this Conclusion and perform other Experiments on it to discover new things.

(end quote)

7. Request Peer Review — “Did you get the same answer as me?”

        Ask other scientists to perform the same Experiments you did to check your work and make sure you didn’t make mistakes, see if they come to the same Conclusion as you did. The more people who get the same answers as you, the more confidence everyone has that you are right.

(thanks to Earl Matthews for sharing this to my stream)

#Science   #ScientificMethod   #Farnsworth   #Futurama