HomeworkQuestions

1)    When does an observation become scientific law? How many times should an experiment be conducted to make turn and hypothesis into a theory? 

An observation is essentially an occurrence noted in nature. For instance, Newton’s observation of the falling of the apple can be classified as an observation that ultimately propelled the scientific law of gravity. However, an observation does not just become a law overnight. In fact, for an observation to become a scientific law the observation must become universally accepted and there should be no room for argument concerning the nature of the law, which is when an observation finally becomes accepted as a scientific law. Moreover, these scientific laws are oft mathematically based and hence almost every law has a corresponding mathematical formula. We could take into consideration for example Avogadro’s constant in chemistry, which is represented by the figure 6.02 x 10²³ and has become a universally accepted number in regards to the number of particles of a substance present per mole of anything.

2)    Is science created or discovered? 

If were to say that science as an entity is “created,” it would be implied that the phenomenon that we know of today were not pre-prevalent to our knowledge and only came into existence once man created it. Contrariwise, to say that science is discovered would allude to the notion that man itself becomes of pre-existent knowledge through exploration and discovery. Hence, I personally believe that science in the true essence is discovered as opposed to created as scientific intellects oft discover novel ideas based on prior discovered knowledge that serves as a fundamental foundation to further more discoveries. Examining a more specific example, we could perhaps consider Gregor Mendel’s extensive experiments based on pea plants.  Mendel, also known as the Father of Modern Genetics, spent extensive hours working on pea plants to understand the phenomenon of inheritance. That being said, Mendel himself did not “create” the science behind inheritance, but instead plays an instrumental role in the discovery of the notion of inheritance. Thus, this particular example corresponds to now science is essentially discovered as opposed to created. Nevertheless, this declaration does not necessarily hold completely true in modern day whereby science is in fact being created. If we were to look at contemporary techniques of genetic modification, designer babies, cloning, or the branch of bioinformatics in general, it is safe to say that with the aid of technology, science is being created. For instance, the novel CRISPR technology that directly allows gene editing is a technology that has been created by man as a mode of science and hence again, the answer to whether science is created or discovered cannot be cannot lucidly be answered in contemporary times.

3)    How reliable is your science textbook?

The reliability of a science textbook can be questionable primarily due to the fact that science is a field of continual evolvement. Discoveries in the scientific field are yielded almost incessantly and hence the authenticity of the content presented in our textbooks become questionable since the textbooks cannot be constantly updated with newfound information. However, in different systems of education the system of updating textbooks continue to remain different. For example, relating from personal experience, at one of my older schools, the Geography textbook stated that there were 9 planets in the solar system, including Pluto. However, at the time that I was studying this book, the declaration that Pluto itself would not be deemed as a planet anymore but rather a dwarf planet had come about. Thus, I vividly remember going up to my teacher and clarifying whether we were expected to still continue saying that 9 planets remained in the solar system or whether we could comply with the novel discovery. Nonetheless, my teacher dismissed my queries by simply stating that “the textbook is always right, and we must follow the textbook.” This continues to be one of my most vivid memories from my old school primarily because the world had been buzzing about the novel discovery yet we were asked to rely solely on the information present on the textbook which of course highlights how the content oft present in school textbooks may be outdated and cannot be relied upon to stay updated with current affairs in the scientific realm.