Science aims to provide natural explanations for events in the natural world and use those explanations to understand patterns and make predictions. It involves making observations and asking questions, forming hypotheses, conducting controlled experiments to test hypotheses, collecting and analyzing data, and drawing conclusions. The scientific method is a process that is constantly evolving as new evidence is gathered.
Gave a talk at StartCon about the future of Growth. I touch on viral marketing / referral marketing, fake news and social media, and marketplaces. Finally, the slides go through future technology platforms and how things might evolve there.
The Six Highest Performing B2B Blog Post FormatsBarry Feldman
If your B2B blogging goals include earning social media shares and backlinks to boost your search rankings, this infographic lists the size best approaches.
Each technological age has been marked by a shift in how the industrial platform enables companies to rethink their business processes and create wealth. In the talk I argue that we are limiting our view of what this next industrial/digital age can offer because of how we read, measure and through that perceive the world (how we cherry pick data). Companies are locked in metrics and quantitative measures, data that can fit into a spreadsheet. And by that they see the digital transformation merely as an efficiency tool to the fossil fuel age. But we need to stretch further…
32 Ways a Digital Marketing Consultant Can Help Grow Your BusinessBarry Feldman
How can a digital marketing consultant help your business? In this resource we'll count the ways. 24 additional marketing resources are bundled for free.
Gave a talk at StartCon about the future of Growth. I touch on viral marketing / referral marketing, fake news and social media, and marketplaces. Finally, the slides go through future technology platforms and how things might evolve there.
The Six Highest Performing B2B Blog Post FormatsBarry Feldman
If your B2B blogging goals include earning social media shares and backlinks to boost your search rankings, this infographic lists the size best approaches.
Each technological age has been marked by a shift in how the industrial platform enables companies to rethink their business processes and create wealth. In the talk I argue that we are limiting our view of what this next industrial/digital age can offer because of how we read, measure and through that perceive the world (how we cherry pick data). Companies are locked in metrics and quantitative measures, data that can fit into a spreadsheet. And by that they see the digital transformation merely as an efficiency tool to the fossil fuel age. But we need to stretch further…
32 Ways a Digital Marketing Consultant Can Help Grow Your BusinessBarry Feldman
How can a digital marketing consultant help your business? In this resource we'll count the ways. 24 additional marketing resources are bundled for free.
The Scientific MethodSteps in the Scientific MethodThere is a .docxssusera34210
The Scientific Method
Steps in the Scientific Method
There is a great deal of variation in the specific techniques scientists use explore the natural world. However, the following steps characterize the majority of scientific investigations:
Step 1: Make observations
Step 2: Propose a hypothesis to explain observations
Step 3: Test the hypothesis with further observations or experiments
Step 4: Analyze data
Step 5: State conclusions about hypothesis based on data analysis
Each of these steps is explained briefly below, and in more detail later in this section.
Step 1: Make observations
A scientific inquiry typically starts with observations. Often, simple observations will trigger a question in the researcher's mind.
Example: A biologist frequently sees monarch caterpillars feeding on milkweed plants, but rarely sees them feeding on other types of plants. She wonders if it is because the caterpillars prefer milkweed over other food choices.
Step 2: Propose a hypothesis
The researcher develops a hypothesis (singular) or hypotheses (plural) to explain these observations. A hypothesis is a tentative explanation of a phenomenon or observation(s) that can be supported or falsified by further observations or experimentation.
Example: The researcher hypothesizes that monarch caterpillars prefer to feed on milkweed compared to other common plants. (Notice how the hypothesis is a statement, not a question as in step 1.)
Step 3: Test the hypothesis
The researcher makes further observations and/or may design an experimentto test the hypothesis. An experiment is a controlled situation created by a researcher to test the validity of a hypothesis. Whether further observations or an experiment is used to test the hypothesis will depend on the nature of the question and the practicality of manipulating the factors involved.
Example: The researcher sets up an experiment in the lab in which a number of monarch caterpillars are given a choice between milkweed and a number of other common plants to feed on.
Step 4: Analyze data
The researchersummarizes and analyzes the information, or data, generated by these further observations or experiments.
Example: In her experiment, milkweed was chosen by caterpillars 9 times out of 10 over all other plant selections.
Step 5: State conclusions
The researcher interprets the results of experiments or observations and forms conclusions about the meaning of these results. These conclusions are generally expressed as probability statements about their hypothesis.
Example: She concludes that when given a choice, 90 percent of monarch caterpillars prefer to feed on milkweed over other common plants.
Often, the results of one scientific study will raise questions that may be addressed in subsequent research. For example, the above study might lead the researcher to wonder why monarchs seem to prefer to feed on milkweed, and she may plan additional experiments to explore this question. For example, perhaps the milkweed has higher ...
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New York Times Article Review Rubric (10 pts)Select a lengthy” .docxhenrymartin15260
New York Times Article Review Rubric (10 pts)
Select a “lengthy” article (more than two paragraphs) that summarizes or discusses one or more science projects. Summarize your article (who, what, when, where and how) in one paragraph (2 pts) and then answer the following questions:
1. In one sentence, what is the main point of the article? (1 pt)
2. What counter-arguments or counter-points does the author make? (1 pt)
3. How does this article relate to anything we have or will discuss in class? How does this article relate to something related to your major, possible career and/or life? Note, your article may not relate to the class, but it should at least relate to your major, career and/or life. (2 pts)
4. Explain if these studies were observational, experimental, technological or some combination of the three. If applicable, identify the independent and (at least one) dependent variables. What possible confounding variables are present in the study? How do the authors “control” for these? (2 pts)
5. What questions does the article leave unanswered? (1 pt)
6. What did you learn from this article? (1 pt)
Electronically submit your answers to Blueline by noon on 1/26/16
What is Science?
Human Biology
1/18/16
A process whose essential characteristics are 1) guided by natural law; 2) is explanatory by natural law; 3) is testable against the empirical world; 4) is falsifiable.William R. Overton, U.S. District Judge in a ruling prohibiting an AR law giving balanced time for creation-science and evolution, 1982The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena.American Heritage DictionaryAbove all it is a methodology for acquiring testable knowledge about the natural world.Stephen Jay Gould
A process: methodology for generating new knowledge based on cycling the following progression: observation, explanation, prediction, test, results, conclusion. A product: new knowledge with the following characteristics: it is cumulative, knowledge expanding, explanatory, predictive, systematic, testable, verifiable, tentative, self-correcting.
-OSU professorOR…
… a way of baffling the uninitiated with incomprehensible jargon. It is a way of obtaining fat government grants. It is a way of achieving mastery over the physical world by threatening it with chaos and destruction.
Scientific Method Observation
Hypothesis
Prediction
Test of prediction
Scientific Method
Test of predictionTreatment versus control groupIndependent vs dependent variables“control” confounding variables
large sample size
Cause and effect conclusions
Scientific MethodTypes of (dependent) variables
Categorical (color, sex)
Discrete (number of fingers or leaves)
Continuous (weight, height)
Appropriate ways to graph the above?
Scientific Method
Test of prediction
Hypothesis vs null hypothesis
Statistics is a tool
Scientific Method
3 Criteria.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
The Scientific MethodSteps in the Scientific MethodThere is a .docxssusera34210
The Scientific Method
Steps in the Scientific Method
There is a great deal of variation in the specific techniques scientists use explore the natural world. However, the following steps characterize the majority of scientific investigations:
Step 1: Make observations
Step 2: Propose a hypothesis to explain observations
Step 3: Test the hypothesis with further observations or experiments
Step 4: Analyze data
Step 5: State conclusions about hypothesis based on data analysis
Each of these steps is explained briefly below, and in more detail later in this section.
Step 1: Make observations
A scientific inquiry typically starts with observations. Often, simple observations will trigger a question in the researcher's mind.
Example: A biologist frequently sees monarch caterpillars feeding on milkweed plants, but rarely sees them feeding on other types of plants. She wonders if it is because the caterpillars prefer milkweed over other food choices.
Step 2: Propose a hypothesis
The researcher develops a hypothesis (singular) or hypotheses (plural) to explain these observations. A hypothesis is a tentative explanation of a phenomenon or observation(s) that can be supported or falsified by further observations or experimentation.
Example: The researcher hypothesizes that monarch caterpillars prefer to feed on milkweed compared to other common plants. (Notice how the hypothesis is a statement, not a question as in step 1.)
Step 3: Test the hypothesis
The researcher makes further observations and/or may design an experimentto test the hypothesis. An experiment is a controlled situation created by a researcher to test the validity of a hypothesis. Whether further observations or an experiment is used to test the hypothesis will depend on the nature of the question and the practicality of manipulating the factors involved.
Example: The researcher sets up an experiment in the lab in which a number of monarch caterpillars are given a choice between milkweed and a number of other common plants to feed on.
Step 4: Analyze data
The researchersummarizes and analyzes the information, or data, generated by these further observations or experiments.
Example: In her experiment, milkweed was chosen by caterpillars 9 times out of 10 over all other plant selections.
Step 5: State conclusions
The researcher interprets the results of experiments or observations and forms conclusions about the meaning of these results. These conclusions are generally expressed as probability statements about their hypothesis.
Example: She concludes that when given a choice, 90 percent of monarch caterpillars prefer to feed on milkweed over other common plants.
Often, the results of one scientific study will raise questions that may be addressed in subsequent research. For example, the above study might lead the researcher to wonder why monarchs seem to prefer to feed on milkweed, and she may plan additional experiments to explore this question. For example, perhaps the milkweed has higher ...
Environmental Science Essay
Scientific Method Step Essay
Science Essay
Scientific Theory Essay
Essay on Forensic Science
Forensic Science Essay example
scientific literacy Essay
Scientific Method
Is Psychology a Science? Essay
The Scientific Method Essay
My Passion For Science
The Scientific Method Of Social Science Essay
Environmental Science Essay
Scientific Theory Essay
The Scientific Method Essay
Scientific Method
The Philosophy of Science Essay
Positivism Essay
Anthony Giddens: A Sociological Study
Sociology As A Scientific Discipline Essay
Definition Of Scientific Management Theory Essay
Science As Product And Science
Definition of Science Fiction Essay
Geography as a Science Essay examples
Scientific Racism Definition
The Principles of Scientific Thinking Essay
Scientific Notation Essay
Ethics in Science Essay
What Are Scientific Merit?
New York Times Article Review Rubric (10 pts)Select a lengthy” .docxhenrymartin15260
New York Times Article Review Rubric (10 pts)
Select a “lengthy” article (more than two paragraphs) that summarizes or discusses one or more science projects. Summarize your article (who, what, when, where and how) in one paragraph (2 pts) and then answer the following questions:
1. In one sentence, what is the main point of the article? (1 pt)
2. What counter-arguments or counter-points does the author make? (1 pt)
3. How does this article relate to anything we have or will discuss in class? How does this article relate to something related to your major, possible career and/or life? Note, your article may not relate to the class, but it should at least relate to your major, career and/or life. (2 pts)
4. Explain if these studies were observational, experimental, technological or some combination of the three. If applicable, identify the independent and (at least one) dependent variables. What possible confounding variables are present in the study? How do the authors “control” for these? (2 pts)
5. What questions does the article leave unanswered? (1 pt)
6. What did you learn from this article? (1 pt)
Electronically submit your answers to Blueline by noon on 1/26/16
What is Science?
Human Biology
1/18/16
A process whose essential characteristics are 1) guided by natural law; 2) is explanatory by natural law; 3) is testable against the empirical world; 4) is falsifiable.William R. Overton, U.S. District Judge in a ruling prohibiting an AR law giving balanced time for creation-science and evolution, 1982The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena.American Heritage DictionaryAbove all it is a methodology for acquiring testable knowledge about the natural world.Stephen Jay Gould
A process: methodology for generating new knowledge based on cycling the following progression: observation, explanation, prediction, test, results, conclusion. A product: new knowledge with the following characteristics: it is cumulative, knowledge expanding, explanatory, predictive, systematic, testable, verifiable, tentative, self-correcting.
-OSU professorOR…
… a way of baffling the uninitiated with incomprehensible jargon. It is a way of obtaining fat government grants. It is a way of achieving mastery over the physical world by threatening it with chaos and destruction.
Scientific Method Observation
Hypothesis
Prediction
Test of prediction
Scientific Method
Test of predictionTreatment versus control groupIndependent vs dependent variables“control” confounding variables
large sample size
Cause and effect conclusions
Scientific MethodTypes of (dependent) variables
Categorical (color, sex)
Discrete (number of fingers or leaves)
Continuous (weight, height)
Appropriate ways to graph the above?
Scientific Method
Test of prediction
Hypothesis vs null hypothesis
Statistics is a tool
Scientific Method
3 Criteria.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
"Impact of front-end architecture on development cost", Viktor TurskyiFwdays
I have heard many times that architecture is not important for the front-end. Also, many times I have seen how developers implement features on the front-end just following the standard rules for a framework and think that this is enough to successfully launch the project, and then the project fails. How to prevent this and what approach to choose? I have launched dozens of complex projects and during the talk we will analyze which approaches have worked for me and which have not.
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
1. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Lesson OverviewLesson Overview
1.1 What Is Science?1.1 What Is Science?
2. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
THINK ABOUT IT
Where did plants and animals come from? How did I come to be?
Humans have tried to answer these questions in different ways. Some
ways of explaining the world have stayed the same over time. Science,
however, is always changing.
3. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
What Science Is and Is Not
What are the goals of science?
4. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
What Science Is and Is Not
What are the goals of science?
One goal of science is to provide natural explanations for events in the
natural world. Science also aims to use those explanations to understand
patterns in nature and to make useful predictions about natural events.
5. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
What Science Is and Is Not
Biology is not just a collection of never-changing facts or unchanging
beliefs about the world.
Some scientific “facts” will change soon—if they haven’t changed already –
and scientific ideas are open to testing, discussion, and revision.
6. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Science as a Way of Knowing
Science is an organized way of gathering and analyzing evidence about
the natural world.
For example, researchers can use science to answer questions about
how whales communicate, how far they travel, and how they are
affected by environmental changes.
7. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Science as a Way of Knowing
Science deals only with the natural world.
Scientists collect and organize information in an orderly way, looking
for patterns and connections among events.
Scientists propose explanations that are based on evidence, not
belief. Then they test those explanations with more evidence.
8. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
The Goals of Science
The physical universe is a system composed of parts and processes
that interact. All objects in the universe, and all interactions among
those objects, are governed by universal natural laws.
One goal of science is to provide natural explanations for events in the
natural world.
Science also aims to use those explanations to understand patterns in
nature and to make useful predictions about natural events.
9. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Science, Change, and Uncertainty
Despite all of our scientific knowledge, much of nature remains a
mystery. Almost every major scientific discovery raises more questions
than it answers. This constant change shows that science continues to
advance.
Learning about science means understanding what we know and what
we don’t know. Science rarely “proves” anything in absolute terms.
Scientists aim for the best understanding of the natural world that
current methods can reveal.
Science has allowed us to build enough understanding to make useful
predictions about the natural world.
10. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Scientific Methodology:
The Heart of Science
What procedures are at the core of scientific methodology?
11. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Scientific Methodology:
The Heart of Science
What procedures are at the core of scientific methodology?
Scientific methodology involves observing and asking questions, making
inferences and forming hypotheses, conducting controlled experiments,
collecting and analyzing data, and drawing conclusions.
12. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Observing and Asking Questions
Scientific investigations begin with observation, the act of noticing and
describing events or processes in a careful, orderly way.
For example, researchers observed that marsh grass grows taller in
some places than others. This observation led to a question: Why do
marsh grasses grow to different heights in different places?
13. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Inferring and Forming a Hypothesis
After posing questions, scientists use further observations to make
inferences, or logical interpretations based on what is already known.
Inference can lead to a hypothesis, or a scientific explanation for a set
of observations that can be tested in ways that support or reject it.
14. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Inferring and Forming a Hypothesis
For example, researchers inferred that something limits grass growth
in some places. Based on their knowledge of salt marshes, they
hypothesized that marsh grass growth is limited by available nitrogen.
15. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Designing Controlled Experiments
Testing a scientific hypothesis often involves designing an experiment
that keeps track of various factors that can change, or variables.
Examples of variables include temperature, light, time, and availability of
nutrients.
Whenever possible, a hypothesis should be tested by an experiment in
which only one variable is changed. All other variables should be kept
unchanged, or controlled. This type of experiment is called a controlled
experiment.
16. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Controlling Variables
It is important to control variables because if several variables are
changed in the experiment, researchers can’t easily tell which variable is
responsible for any results they observe.
The variable that is deliberately changed is called the independent
variable (also called the manipulated variable).
The variable that is observed and that changes in response to the
independent variable is called the dependent variable (also called the
responding variable).
17. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Control and Experimental Groups
Typically, an experiment is divided into control and experimental groups.
A control group is exposed to the same conditions as the experimental
group except for one independent variable.
Scientists set up several sets of control and experimental groups to try
to reproduce or replicate their observations.
18. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Designing Controlled Experiments
For example, the researchers selected similar plots of marsh grass. All
plots had similar plant density, soil type, input of freshwater, and height
above average tide level. The plots were divided into control and
experimental groups.
The researchers added nitrogen fertilizer (the independent variable) to
the experimental plots. They then observed the growth of marsh grass
(the dependent variable) in both experimental and control plots.
19. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Collecting and Analyzing Data
Scientists record experimental observations, gathering information
called data. There are two main types of data: quantitative data and
qualitative data.
20. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Collecting and Analyzing Data
Quantitative data are numbers obtained by counting or measuring. In
the marsh grass experiment, it could include the number of plants per
plot, plant sizes, and growth rates.
21. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Collecting and Analyzing Data
Qualitative data are descriptive and involve characteristics that cannot
usually be counted. In the marsh grass experiment, it might include
notes about foreign objects in the plots, or whether the grass was
growing upright or sideways.
22. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Research Tools
Scientists choose appropriate tools for collecting and analyzing data.
Tools include simple devices such as metersticks, sophisticated
equipment such as machines that measure nitrogen content, and charts
and graphs that help scientists organize their data.
23. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Research Tools
This graph shows how grass height changed over time.
24. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Research Tools
In the past, data were recorded by hand. Today, researchers typically
enter data into computers, which make organizing and analyzing data
easier.
25. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Sources of Error
Researchers must be careful to avoid errors in data collection and
analysis. Tools used to measure the size and weight of marsh grasses,
for example, have limited accuracy.
Data analysis and sample size must be chosen carefully. The larger the
sample size, the more reliably researchers can analyze variation and
evaluate differences between experimental and control groups.
26. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Drawing Conclusions
Scientists use experimental data as evidence to support, refute, or
revise the hypothesis being tested, and to draw a valid conclusion.
27. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Analysis showed that marsh grasses grew taller than controls by adding
nitrogen.
28. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
Drawing Conclusions
New data may indicate that the
researchers have the right general
idea but are wrong about a few
particulars. In that case, the original
hypothesis is reevaluated and
revised; new predictions are made,
and new experiments are designed.
Hypotheses may have to be revised
and experiments redone several
times before a final hypothesis is
supported and conclusions can be
drawn.
29. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
When Experiments Are Not Possible
It is not always possible to test a hypothesis with an experiment. In
some of these cases, researchers devise hypotheses that can be tested
by observations.
Animal behavior researchers, for example, might want to learn how
animal groups interact in the wild by making field observations that
disturb the animals as little as possible. Researchers analyze data from
these observations and devise hypotheses that can be tested in
different ways.
30. Lesson OverviewLesson Overview What Is Science?What Is Science?
When Experiments Are Not Possible
Sometimes, ethics prevents certain types of experiments—especially on
human subjects.
For example, medical researchers who suspect that a chemical causes
cancer, for example, would search for volunteers who have already
been exposed to the chemical and compare them to people who have
not been exposed to the chemical.
The researchers still try to control as many variables as possible, and
might exclude volunteers who have serious health problems or known
genetic conditions.
Medical researchers always try to study large groups of subjects so that
individual genetic differences do not produce misleading results.