BSC 116 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Thermodynamic Cycle, Falsifiability, Continental Drift
21 Aug 2016
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The scientific method & pattern and process of evolution. Jobs of scientist are to know things and explain them. Two phases of research: discovery and explanation. Inductive reasoning - extrapolating from observations to generalization. Deductive reasoning - use a generalization to explain particular cases. (if, then) Have to be willing to replace our explanations when they are wrong. For a hypothesis to be useful, it must - provide the best explanation, it must falsifiable (testable), which means it"s not valid. Scientific theories - hypotheses that have survived repeated test. Laws - are more general then theories. H, t, and l are ways of organizing data using general explanations. Two populations of mice belonging to the same species but with different colors and in different environments. Beach mouse lives on white sand dunes with sparse vegetation; the inland mouse lives on darker soil. They blend in very well with their habitat, survival of the fittest/natural selection.
