Nature of Science PDF

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Brittany Kraft...

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Lauren Perez Dr. Brittany Kraft BSC 1005 3 December, 2018 The Nature of Science It is often believed that there is only one straight path to science. Time and time again, this misconception has been proven wrong. The first TED talk I watched, “Why Curiosity is the Key to Science and Medicine,” goes in detail about the uncertainties and exceptions to science, and how they lead to new discoveries and new ways of thinking. The next one titled “Why People Believe Weird Things,” talks about people having to keep track of not only the successes of science, but also its misses. It states that everyone is a scientist because “It is the way of thinking about things (3:05),” as stated by Michael Shermer. Lastly, in “How Simple Ideas Lead to Scientific Discoveries,” Adam Savage explains that curiosity is imperative to science as it can lead to world changing discoveries. The three characteristics taken from these videos that explains the nature of science include the following: science is always changing, curiosity is the basis of all science, and the few outliers teach us what scientists don’t know and can lead to new ways of thinking. I have always been interested in science, but mostly in relation to humans and their interactions. This explains my career interest in psychology. Psychology is the study of the human mind and its functions. It involves observations, inferences, and curiosity which are all aspects of science. The most important characteristic of science, I believe, is curiosity. Science needs to remain curious enough because nothing is ever proven definitely. Without curiosity, there would

be nothing. The world would still be flat, the Earth would still be the center of the universe, and the speed of light would still be unknown. Adam Savage goes into detail about the discovery of the speed of light in “How Simple Ideas Lead to Scientific Discoveries.” Armand Fizeau was a fact checker and according to Savage, “he calculates the speed of light to within two percent of its actual value (6:12).” This example of curiosity allowed the French physicist to accurately come up with a way to find the speed of light. Curiosity is the basis for all of science and discovery. It is the one thing that every person has in common. This relates to everything I have learned in BSC 1005. Dr. Kraft discussed the many different types of animal behaviors which are used to learn about how animals mate, find food, avoid predators, and reproduce. Curiosity is the basis for not only learning, but also understanding animal behavior. In regards to my major, science uses curiosity to ask the how and why questions, and so does the field of psychology. There is psychology behind curiosity. Psychologists are not just interested in new discoveries, but also in where curiosity stems from, whether it is driven from within, or influence from the environment. Another characteristic of science is that it is always changing. In regards to medicine, it is never closed as stated in “Why Curiosity is the Key to Science and Medicine” by Kevin B. Jones. He is a sarcoma specialist and also performs surgeries where he believes that no surgery is the same and “every encounter with medicine is an experiment (14:05).” As a scientist, you have to adapt to every situation given to you whether it be a natural science, a formal science, a social science, or an applied science. Dr. Marie Charrel Dennis talked about the many misconceptions of science. One myth includes science being definite, which is inconclusive. This is similar to the discipline of psychology because every person thinks and acts in different

ways. Psychologists are equipped to adapt to every person’s needs and changing environment. For instance, say there are two patients, both having major depressive disorder. Each patient may react differently to the same amount of therapy and type of antidepressants. It is all about changing each aspect that will help the patient succeed overall. Lastly, the exceptions to science teach us what we don’t know and can lead to new thinking. This characteristic is discussed in both “Why Curiosity is the Key to Science and Medicine” and “Why People Believe Weird Things.” In regards to the first TED talk, Jones talks about how the outliers in medicine are the people who will either better or worsen an experiment. In regards to the second TED talk, Shermer analyzes keeping “track of the misses and not just the hits (1:58).” This allows scientists to see what went wrong and how to improve their experiments, no matter the cause. It is important to look at the whole database to see how the hits or misses might stand out. This characteristic can relate to Dr. Kraft’s Animal Behavior unit about echolocation. When Spallanzani first conducted his experiment on bats, he believed that if he depraved bats of one of their senses at a time, he could identity the one necessary for detection. He concluded that bats could find their food using sound, but now one knew how. Griffin used new technologies to listen to high pitch sound waves emitted by bats. Because Griffin knew what Spallanzani concluded, he was able to further the knowledge on how bats catch their prey. Psychology uses the exceptions in order to further the understanding of the brain and its functions. For example, a man known as HM suffered from severe amnesia due to the removal of his hippocampus. Up until this point, people did not know the hippocampus was involved in making memories. Although this surgery would be seen as unethical these days,

HM’s amnesia provided a great deal of information to memory processes and storage. His exception led to great findings. All three of these characteristics are interrelated. Curiosity leads to changes in science that then lead to new thinking. As stated before, science is not definite and therefore, it is considered an attempt at understanding natural phenomena. One question that psychologists should work together to answer is the nature versus nurture debate. Are human traits affected by genes or the environment, and which matters more? This is one of psychology's biggest questions that is still unanswered. It is our curiosity that leads psychologists to further research and develop a conclusion based off this question. The current theory is that it is a mix between genes and the environment that influences a person. This affects psychologists as it can help with different approaches to treating a patient. To go about answer this question, one could separate identical twins at birth. Because identical twins carry the same genes, overtime, scientists could look at the possible differences. They could look at their physical appearances or reactions to stimuli. Based off this data, one could see how their genes and the environment played in the role of their upbringing....