BIOL 1107 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Gerald Joyce, Scientific Method, Genetic Variation
4 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Observation: the act of viewing the world around us. Experimentation: a disciplined and controlled way of asking and answering questions about the world in an unbiased manner. Hypotheses: tentative explanations to the questions brought up by observations. Charles darwin"s book, on the origin of species, shows how we piece together observations to construct a hypothesis. Noted success of breeders selecting the best individuals for reproduction. This breeding can only be successful if traits can be passed down, or inherited. Argued that life has evolved by means of natural selection. Makes predictions about observations not yet made or experiments not yet run. Controlled experiments are when the researcher sets up several groups to be tested, keeping the conditions constant. Variable: something different introduced into one group that might have some effect. Test group: the group manipulated by the variable. Control group: the group in which the variable is not introduced. The expectation is that no effect will occur in this group.
