Introduction to Life Science

2-
 Why a Study of Biology is Important?

Societal
Medicine
Public Health
Worldwide Water Crisis

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 Why a Study of Biology is Important?

Philosophical
Evolution
Genetics

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 Why a Study of Biology is Important?

Personal
To be informed
Support your cause
Make it your life work

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 [bahy-ol-uh-jee]

Bio = life
...ology = the study of
Biology is the science that studies
life

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 The Scientific Method in Action
A systematic way of gaining information

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 The Scientific Method:
Observation
An observation is a thoughtful and careful
recognition of an event or a fact.

The careful observation of a phenomenon

leads to a question.
How does this happen?
What causes it to occur?

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 The Scientific Method:
The Hypothesis

Hypothesizing
question an observation
propose possible solutions to questions based on
what is already understood about the phenomenon
Hypotheses must:
be logical
account for all current information
make the least possible assumptions
be testable
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 Testing Hypotheses

Hypotheses need to be tested to see if they are

supported or disproved.
Disproved hypotheses are rejected
Hypotheses can be supported but not proven

Ways to test a hypothesis:

Gathering relevant historical information
Retrospective Studies
Make additional observations from the natural world
Experimentation
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 The Scientific Method:
Experimentation

Experiments
rigorous tests to determine if the solutions are
supported

Experiments attempt to recreation an occurrence

tests whether or not the hypothesis can be supported
or rejected

There are many types of experiments

laboratory, clinical trials, surveys, statistical analyses

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 Experimental Design

All experiments have key elements in common:

Experiments must be controlled

this means that all aspects except for one variable must be
kept constant
usually include any two groups.
Experimental group: variable is altered, independent variable
Control group: variable is not altered, dependent variable

Experiments use models to recreate occurrences, but

in a controlled setting
model organisms, ISS, cohorts
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 Experimental Design

Experiments must:
use large numbers of subjects and/or must be
repeated several times (replication)
be independently reproducible

The validity of experimental results must:

be tested statistically
chi-squared test for statistical significance
be scrutinized by other scientists
peer reviewed
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 Theory
If the hypothesis is supported by ample experimental
data, it leads to a theory.
A theory may be defined as a widely accepted, plausible
general statement about a fundamental concept in
science.
The germ theory states that infectious diseases are caused by
microorganisms.
Many diseases are not caused by microorganisms, so we must be
careful not to generalize theories too broadly.
Theories continue to be tested
Exceptions identified
Modifications made

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 A Scientific Law

A scientific law is a uniform and constant fact of nature

that describes what happens in nature.
An example: All living things come from pre-existing living things.
Scientific laws promote the process of generalization.
Inductive reasoning
Since every bird that has been studied lays eggs, we can generalize
that all birds lay eggs.
Once a theory becomes established, it can be used to
predict specific facts.
Deductive reasoning
We can predict that a newly discovered bird species will lay eggs.
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 Scientific Communication
Data is shared with the
scientific community through
research articles published
in scientific journals.
peer review

Scientists present
preliminary data at
conferences.

Scientists collaborate directly

by phone and
e-mail.

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 A Sample Experiment
Scientific American August 2010

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 A Sample Experiment
Article: Hardt, Marah J. and Safina, Carl. Threatening Ocean Life from
the Inside Out. Scientific American August 2010: Vol. 303 2.

What types of observations were being made?

State a hypothesis that was tested.
Describe an experiment that was conducted.
Discuss a variable that was studied and describe how
constants where maintained in the experiment.
How was a model system was used to simulate the conditions
being studied.
How were the complex processes being studied reduced to
their simplest parts?

1- What was learned from the experiments?

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