Scientific Method Essay Example for Free

Scientific Method Essay The scientific method has four steps 1. Observation and description of a phenomenon. The observations are made visually or with the aid of scientific equipment. 2. Formulation of a hypothesis to explain the phenomenon in the form of a causal mechanism or a mathematical relation. 3. Test the hypothesis by analyzing the results of observations or by predicting and observing the existence of new phenomena that follow from the hypothesis. If experiments do not confirm the hypothesis, the hypothesis must be rejected or modified (Go back to Step 2). 4. Establish a theory based on repeated verification of the results. The subject of a scientific experiment has to be observable and reproducible. Observations may be made with the unaided eye, a microscope, a telescope, a voltmeter, or any other apparatus suitable for detecting the desired phenomenon. The invention of the telescope in 1608 made it possible for Galileo to discover the moons of Jupiter two years later. Other scientists confirmed Galileos observations and the course of astronomy was changed. However, some observations that were not able to withstand tests of objectivity were the canals of Mars reported by astronomer Percival Lowell. Lowell claimed to be able to see a network of canals in Mars that he attributed to intelligent life in that planet. Bigger telescopes and satellite missions to Mars failed to confirm the existence of canals. This was a case where the observations could not be independently verified or reproduced, and the hypothesis about intelligent life was unjustified by the observations. To Lowells credit, he predicted the existence of the planet Pluto in 1905 based on perturbations in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. This was a good example of deductive logic. The application of the theory of gravitation to the known planets predicted that they should be in a different position from where they were. If the law of gravitation was not wrong, then something else had to account for the variation. Pluto was discovered 25 years later. Limitations of the Scientific Method Science has some well-known limitations. Science works by studying problems in isolation. This is very effective at getting good, approximate solutions. Problems outside these artificial boundaries are generally not addressed. The consistent, formal systems of symbols and mathematics used in science cannot prove all statements, and furthermore, they cannot prove all TRUE statements. Kurt Godel showed this in 1931. The limitations of formal logical systems make it necessary for scientists to discard their old systems of thought and introduce new ones occasionally. Newtons gravitational model works fairly well for everyday physical descriptions, but it is not able to account for many important observations. For this reason, it has been replaced by Einsteins general theory of relativity for most celestial phenomena. Instead of talking about gravity, we now are supposed to talk about the curvature of the four-dimensional time-space continuum. Scientific observations are also subject to physical limits that may prevent us from finding the ultimate truth. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that it is impossible to determine simultaneously the position and momentum of an elementary particle. So, if we know the location of a particle we cannot determine its velocity, and if we know its velocity we cannot determine its location. Jacob Bronowski wrote that nature is not a gigantic formalizable system because to formalize it we would have to make some assumptions that cut some of its parts from consideration, and having done that, we cannot have a system that embraces the whole of nature. The application of the scientific method is limited to independently observable, measurable events that can be reproduced. The scientific method is also applicable to random events that have statistical distributions. In atomic chemistry, for example, it is impossible to predict when one specific atom will decay and emit radiation, but it is possible to devise theories and formulas to predict when half of the atoms of a large sample will decay. Irreproducible results cannot be studied by the scientific method. There was one day when many car owners reported that the alarm systems of their cars were set off at about the same time without any apparent cause. Automotive engineers were not able to discover the reason because the problem could not be reproduced. They hypothesized that it could have been radio interference from a passing airplane, but they could not prove it one way or another. Mental conceptual experiences cannot be studied by the scientific method either. At this time there is no instrumentation that enables someone to monitor what anybody else conceives in their mind, although it is possible to determine which part of the brain is active during any given task. It is not possible to define experiments to determine objectively which works of art are great, or whether Picasso was better than Matisse. So-called miracles are also beyond the scientific method. A person has tumors and faces certain death, and then, the tumors start shrinking and the person becomes healthy. What brought about the remission? A change in diet? A change in mental attitude? It is impossible to go back in time to monitor all variables that could have caused the cure, and it would be unethical to plant new tumors into the person to try to reproduce the results for a more careful study. Critical Thinking The scientific method relies on critical thinking, which is the process of questioning common beliefs and explanations to distinguish those beliefs that are reasonable and logical from those which lack adequate evidence or rational foundation. Arguments consists of one or more premises and one conclusion. A premise is a statement that is offered in support of a claim being made. Premises and claims can be either true or false. In deductive arguments the premises provide complete support for the conclusion. If the premises provide the required degree of support for the conclusion then the argument is valid, and if all its premises are true, then the conclusion must be true. In inductive arguments the premises provide some degree of support for the conclusion. When the premises of inductive arguments are true, their conclusion is likely to be true. Arguments that have one or more false premises are unsound. Fallacies Arguments are subject to a variety of fallacies. A fallacy is an error in reasoning in which the premises given for the conclusion do not provide the needed degree of support. A deductive fallacy is a deductive argument where the premises are all true but reach a false conclusion. An inductive fallacy consist of arguments where the premises do not provide enough support for the conclusion. In such cases, even if the premises are true, the conclusion is not likely to be true. Common fallacies are categorized by their type, such as Ad Hominem (personal attack), and appeals to authority, belief, fear, ridicule, tradition, etc. An example of an Ad Hominem fallacy would be to say You do not understand this because you are American (or Chinese, etc. . The national origin of a person (the premise) has nothing to do with the conclusion that a person can understand something or not, therefore the argument is flawed. Appeals to ridicule are of the form: You would be stupid to believe that the earth goes around the sun. Sometimes, a naive or false justification may be added in appeals to ridicule, such as we can plainly see the sun go around the earth every day. Appe als to authority are of the form The president of the United States said this, therefore it must be true. The fact that a famous person, great person, or authority figure said something is not a valid basis for something being true. Truth is independent of who said it. Types of Evidence Evidence is something that provides proof concerning a matter in question. Direct or Experimental evidence. The scientific methods relies on direct evidence, i. e. , evidence that can be directly observed and tested. Scientific experiments are designed to be repeated by other scientists and to demonstrate unequivocably the point that they are trying to prove by controlling all the factors that could influence the results. A scientist conducts an experiment by varying a single factor and observing the results. When appropriate, double blind experiments are conducted to avoid the possibility of bias. If it is necessary to determine the effectiveness of a drug, an independent scientist will prepare the drug and an inert substance (a placebo), identifying them as A and B. A second scientist selects two groups of patients with similar characteristics (age, sex, etc. ), and not knowing which is the real drug, administers substance A to one group of patients and substance B to the second group of patients. By not knowing whether A or B is the real drug, the second scientist focuses on the results of the experiment and can make objective evaluations. At the end of the experiment, the second scientist should be able to tell whether the group receiving substance A showed improvements over those receiving substance B. If no effect can be shown, the drug being tested is ineffective. Neither the second scientist nor the patients can cheat by favoring one substance over another, because they do not know which is the real drug. Anecdotal, Correlational, or Circumstantial Evidence. Where there is smoke, there is fire is a popular saying. When two things occur together frequently, it is possible to assume that there is a direct or causative relationship between them, but it is also possible that there are other factors. For example, if you get sick every time that you eat fish and drink milk, you could assume that you are allergic to fish. However, you may be allergic to milk, or only to the com bination of fish with milk. Correlational evidence is good for developing hypotheses that can then be tested with the proper experiments, e. g. drink milk only, eat fish only, eat fish and milk together. There is nothing wrong with using representative cases to illustrate an inductive conclusion drawn from a fair sample. The problem arises when a single case or a few selected cases are used to draw a conclusion which would not be supported by a properly conducted study. Argumentative Evidence consists of evaluating facts that are known and formulating a hypothesis about what the facts imply. Argumentative evidence is notoriously unreliable because anybody can postulate a hypothesis about anything. This was illustrated above with the example about the channels of Mars implying intelligent life. The statement I heard a noise in the attic, it must be a ghost also falls in this category. Testimonial Evidence. A famous football player appears on television and says that Drug-XYZ provides relief from pain and works better than anything else. You know that the football player gets paid for making the commercial. How much can you trust this evidence? Not very much. Testimonials are often biased in favor of a particular point of view. In court proceedings, something actually experienced by a witness (eyewitness information) has greater weight than what someone told a witness (hearsay information). Nevertheless, experiments have repeatedly demonstrated that eyewitness accounts are highly unreliable when compared with films of the events. The statement I saw a ghost last night. is an example of testimonial evidence that probably cannot be verified and should not be trusted. On the other hand, the statement I saw a car crash yesterday. can be objectively verified to determine whether it is true or false by checking for debris from the accident, hospital records, and other physical evidence. Make full use of your senses. Making use of your senses is the subjective part of the Methodology. This is the stage where your special sensory skills can be put to use. If you have extraordinary hearing, use it. If you have a photographic memory make sure that it gets used for most of your problem solving. Nobody else has your s pecific impressions of your environment. Your point of view and your observations are unique. Part of using your senses may involve using instrumentation or interaction with others. Lucky charms, divining rods, and other magical devices that do not have reproducible and verifiable functionality do not count as instrumentation. If you dont have perfect eyesight and you need to see something clearly, use your glasses. Make observations from several points of view to get good depth perception and to confirm impressions. Take photographs if you need to remember something in great detail. Use a tape recorder or a notepad to record your observations for later review. Make sure that your senses are at their best by avoiding intoxicants that affect your perceptions. Interaction with others may involve using another being (not necessarily human) to make the observations for you. For example, a blind person may use a seeing-eye dog to get around, a truck driver may use directions from someone else when backing up into a tight spot, a hunter may use a dogs sense of smell for tracking game, or a miner may use a canary to warn him of pockets of unbreathable odorless gases. Whenever you trust someone elses perception more than your own you may find that the conclusions that you reach are unsatisfactory. How many hunters have been led astray by dogs that followed a rabbits trail rather than the foxs? And how many truck drivers have crashed while backing up because they misinterpreted their helpers signals? Reliance on your own senses is the only way to avoid such problems, but you dont always have this choice. The application of logic may be necessary to determine which perceptions you can trust. Let us say that you are not under the influence of any drugs and you see an apparition of a dead person, what should you do? How do you distinguish hallucinations from real perceptions? How do you know if your senses fool you or if your observations are real? One time-honored test is to pinch yourself to make sure that you are not dreaming. If you should tell someone else about your experience and they dont observe the same things, does this mean that you are crazy or that something is wrong with you? Or does this prove that you have more refined perception that enables you to see things that others do not see? What would it be like to live in a world where only you have color vision and everyone else is colorblind? The difference between real perceptions and hallucinations is that you can repeat and reproduce results from real perceptions but not from hallucinations. In a world where you are the only person with color vision, you would eventually be able to prove to everyone else by objective means that colors, or at least different frequencies of light, do exist.

Essay --

P Gene as an Inherited Biomarker of Human Eyecolor1 The variants within the key pigmentation gene, melanocortin-receptor 1 (MC1R), in particular have been ubiquitously linked with high risk traits and skin cancers involving both pigmentary and non-pigmentary functions and likely interaction with variants in other genes. In conclusion, the genetic variants within the genes involved in skin pigmentation besides influencing phenotypic traits are important determinants of risk of several skin cancers, (National Center For Biotechnology Information). Using a sample of 629 normally pigmented individuals, we found that individuals were less likely to have blue or gray eyes if they had P gene variants Arg305Trp (P = 0.002), Arg419Gln (P = 0.001), or the combination of both variants (P = 0.003). These results suggest that P gene, in part, determines normal phenotypic variation in human eye color and may therefore represent an inherited biomarker of cutaneous cancer risk. To evaluate whether the P gene is associated with human eye color in nonalbino individuals representing the normal phenotyp...

Martial Law Reflection Paper

Colleen Gatchalian September 17, 2012 II – Ilang-ilang Soc Sci 2 MARTIAL LAW REFLECTION PAPER During our humanities week in my high school, we commemorated the 40th anniversary of Martial Law as the Social Science activity. 1 There were exhibits, rituals, talks, and many experiences shared and throughout all this, I have come to realize how lucky I am, that I have the freedom all those heroes during martial law fought for, without breaking a sweat. 2 I realized how blessed I am, that I can do what I want to do, when I want to, because of heroes who sacrificed their lives for that. 3 I learned about the importance of freedom, love for country, sacrifice, and remembering all those who have done something worthwhile. 4 During the tribute to Pisay martyrs, I really took the time to remember and value everything they did for our country. 5 I still have those rice grains we were asked to keep in my desk drawer, and every day when I open the drawer to get paper or a pen, I always remember what the grains represented – the fruits of the labor that all the martyrs went through. During the talks in the gym and in the small group discussion, I learned about the blood and sweat that all the Filipinos wasted fighting martial law. 7 Honestly, I never think of martial law heroes when I see or hear the word â€Å"hero†, because I mostly think of the heroes from the Spanish era, but then I realized that this was just a modern version of what happened to our country during the Spanish era – the people made so many sacrifices and lived through horrible and torturous times. I learned about all the hardships Filipinos went through, and the many things they weren’t allowed to do, along with the very few things they were actually allowed to do. 9 I do realize that I am only supposed to cite one important thing I learned, but I feel it necessary to enumerate all these, because I feel that they are of equal importance. 10 Freedom is very important, because it is one of the things in life that people look forward too – making their own choices, and doing what they want, when they want. 11 Love for country is also important, because your country is the place where you were born and where you live, you grew up in its culture, and you act like someone who grew up in it; you can’t just throw it aside, rather, you have to fight for it, love it, and honor it, because it is yours. 12 I consider sacrifice as one of the most important things I have learned during the talk, because without sacrifice, there would be no heroes who gave us what we have today. 13 Sacrifice is a virtue we must all have, and something we must use when it comes to people whom we love. 14 Lastly, remembering all our heroes is important, because not all of us will just lay down our lives for our country, because it takes a great deal of love for our country, and of course courage, to sacrifice for one’s country. 15 Just like what Elias said in Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, we must â€Å"remember those who fell in the night without seeing the dawn. 16 We have to value all our heroes for what they did, and strive to become like them in serving our country. 17 Assuming I was a Pisay student during the martial law era, I would definitely join an activist group, because I feel that the power the people hold is without a doubt larger than whatever power any leader holds; therefore, if a lot of people revolt against martial law, the time will come when the leader will have to give up and do what the people want, just like what happened during the People Power Revolution. 18 However, inside school, I would start an activist group. 19 I don’t have the courage to start an activist group outside of school because I don’t have the authority and I am not comfortable doing so, but once inside my school, I will do what I want to go against Marcos and his ridiculous martial law declaration. 20 Likewise, I feel that fighting for a cause is more effective if more people unite and do it all together. 21 Being a Pisay student also means being an â€Å"Iskolar ng Bayan†; therefore, I have to fulfill the duties of being an â€Å"Iskolar ng Bayan†. 22 In doing so, I can show my appreciation of the deeds of the heroes and martyrs of Martial Law by always remembering them during National Heroes Day and valuing what they did whenever it’s September 21. 23 Also, I will try to find my own way to serve my country as they did, so to use my talents in a proper way, and to give back to the country that gave me my exceptional high school education. 24 Also, I will bring up the subject of martial law heroes whenever the subject of Filipino heroes comes up and most of all, I will reasure the freedom that I have with all my heart and treat it as the most precious thing I can ever possess to value everything that the heroes and martyrs did for all of us. 25 I can’t begin to imagine a life without freedom. 26 I salute to all the martial law heroes who laid down their lives to give me and every other Filipino the freedom each of us deserves. 27 And so to end my reflection paper, I’d like to say thank you to every hero who gave me my freedom, both named and unnamed. 28

The Tragic Tragedy Of Oedipus Oedipus The King

Noble yet naive, Oedipus eagerly seeks to discover if the oracle stating that he will murder his father and marry his mother is true. Although the beginning of Sophocles’ play â€Å"Oedipus The King† emphasizes Oedipus’ character as heroic, Oedipus eventually encounters an ironic turn of events once the truth brings knowledge of his past and present, and alters his attitude. The play’s powerful symbolic use of eyes and crossroads paired with the pattern of blindness towards truth foreshadows the downfall of a man who cannot change his inevitable fate. Even while seeing the truth with his own eyes, Oedipus’ enlightenment advances to physically blindness by the end of the play. Sophocles’ dramatic irony warns the audience that reluctance of the†¦show more content†¦With this said, the fact that the crossroads contain three different roads that connect foreshadows this chain reaction. Crossroads may also symbolize multiple outcomes or ways of managing a situation. In this case, Oedipus could decide between three different ways of solving the problem that was in front of him. The audience can see that this is an act of fate and prophecy rather than freedom and choice. According to the author of â€Å"The Oedipus Rex of Sophocles and Psychoanalysis,† Oedipus’ greatest mistake was inevitable. Mahony asserts, â€Å"[W]ithin the briefest time after hearing the oracular doom about his filial future, Oedipus unwittingly went on to have the most momentous involvement with two people old enough to be his parents† (294). This proves to the reader that the oracle was inevitable due to Oedipus’ inability to recognize his biological father. Oedipus’ inability to recognize his father, in other words his blindness, is the main connection to his own downfall. Eyesight and vision are reoccurring symbols in the play that represent a distinctive si gn that helps the audience recognize when the truth is known and when Oedipus is unable or unwilling to see the truth. Wheelwright explains, â€Å"[W]hat we have†¦seen many times is that Oedipus acts not only in blindness but with blindness† (249). This means that Oedipus knows of the truth, yet ignores the truth because he is fearful of his fate. Therefore,Show MoreRelatedThe Tragic Tragedy Of Sophocles Oedipus The King1601 Words   |  7 PagesThe Tragic Hero Tragedy deals with unexpected or unfortunate events that usually results in negative outcomes that affects the downfall of the main character in a play. Tragedy within Greek drama incorporates the time within the their lifestyle of religious and superstitions. Greek writers use tragedy as a theme in literature because it represents their civilization. Sophocles uses this theme in his dramatic plays because the audience is able to correspond to the story line. It allows the audienceRead MoreEssay on Oedipus: The Reign of a Tragic Hero1266 Words   |  6 PagesWithout knowing what Greek theater was all about, how can someone expect to truly understand a tragic play and the history it comes with? The history behind the character of Oedipus, in the play Oedipus the King, is very complicated. His intricate past dealing with prophecies, family members, and murder is the main focus of the story. There are many characteristics that complete Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero; th ese being the presence of hamartia and peripeteia, a sense of self-awareness, theRead MoreOedipus As A Tragic Hero1094 Words   |  5 PagesIn the play Oedipus the King, Oedipus struggles to accept the truth and lets his temper over power him. He can be displayed as a tragic hero. His refusal to accept the truth led to Oedipus’ down fall. 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Oedipus, being the heroic king, takes full responsibility to find out the cause of their aliments. While working to discover the source of the plague, Oedipus stumbles upon the tragic truth of his heritage and the horrifying