BIO 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Thought Experiment, Ernst Mach, Falsifiability
22 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Process: cause or mechanism that explains how/why a patern occurs (unobservable) Easier to document paterns than to understand a process. We build models to test hypothesis about processes we can"t observe. Useful because some characterisics resemble a human disease/disorder; we can manipulate genes. Conceptual model: theoreical constructs (someimes similar to a metaphor) Mathemaical models: quanitaive representaion of a system using numerical representaion. Must be falsiiable (capable or being proven wrong) Explanaions that are supernatural are not scieniic because they"re not testable. Constrain our mental conceptualizaions of the natural world. Limit how we experiment with a biological system. Be consistent with prior knowledge (build upon what is known) Problems: theory is loosely applied to things without real evidence; disinguish scieniic from everyday theory. Things we are trying to igure out but can never see: black boxes . Unknown system; gather observaions and inferences; build model consist with observaions and inferences; develop testable hypotheses and perform test.
