One way or another, scientific experiments are mainly about control.
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This is one of ScienceOrNot’s Hallmarks of science. See them all here. |
In short…
Experiments are used to collect data under controlled conditions.
An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature, and a measurement is the recording of Nature’s answer.
Good scientists make models and then try to break them.
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This is one of ScienceOrNot’s Hallmarks of science. See them all here. |
In short…
Real-world testing of models guards against wishful thinking. A scientific model is accepted as valid only after it is tested against data from the real world and the evidence supports it. Scientists have most confidence in models that are supported by multiple independent lines of evidence.
Scientists are building explanatory structures, telling stories which are scrupulously tested to see if they are stories about real life.
A scientific model has no chance of being right unless there’s a possibility it’s wrong.
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This is one of ScienceOrNot’s Hallmarks of science. See them all here. |
In short…
For a model to be regarded as scientific, there must be some way of testing whether it is false. A model remains in contention as long as no falsifying evidence appears from such tests.
To be scientific, a hypothesis has to take a risk, has to “stick its neck out.” If a theory takes no risks at all, because it is compatible with every possible observation, then it is not scientific.
Good scientists need to be creative. They need to invent fertile new models and design imaginative ways of testing them.
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This is one of ScienceOrNot’s Hallmarks of science. See them all here. |
In short…
Scientists try to explain aspects of the real world by comparing them with models that are based on familiar mechanisms. Scientific models must be testable and they are accepted by scientists only after they have been tested in the real world.
The most common misunderstanding about science is that scientists seek and find truth. They don’t — they make and test models…. Making sense of anything means making models that can predict outcomes and accommodate observations. Truth is a model.
Science or not? 