Describe the manner in which scientists can use this research for future construction in mountainous regions.
1) “The Scientific Method” Please respond to the following:
· Watch the video titled “The Scientific Method” (3 min 15 sec) under the Scientific Method terms section of the Science Corner. You can also view the video at http://www.ket.org/education/video/kgedu/kgedu_000005.htm. Next, describe each step of the scientific method. Assess the importance of the role of reproducibility, collaboration, and peer review as part of scientific inquiry.
· Watch the video titled “GlobalTrek: Inca Road” (4 min 2 sec) under the scientific inquiry section of the Science Corner. You can also view the video at http://science360.gov/obj/video/ef05ee9f-2c21-4ef2-8b4d-fa8cbda76670/globaltrek-inca-road. Next, describe the main challenges that scientists face in collecting data and making observations on how the road was made. Then, explain the strategy that researchers are developing to overcome these challenges. Describe the manner in which scientists can use this research for future construction in mountainous regions.
· Pseudoscience is defined in your book on page 6. Read this section and then give an example of a pseudoscience and explain why it doesn’t qualify as scientific. Next, choose an example that hasn’t already been mentioned in your textbook or by your classmates.
Page 6
Science and Society Pseudoscience
For a claim to qualify as scientific, it must meet certain standards. For example, the claim must be reproducible by others who have no stake in whether the claim is true or false. The data and subsequent interpretations are open to scrutiny in a social environment where it’s okay to have made an honest mistake, but not okay to have been dishonest or deceiving. Claims that are presented as scientific but do not meet these standards are what we call pseudoscience, which literally means “fake science.” In the realm of pseudoscience, skepticism and tests for possible wrongness are downplayed or flatly ignored.
Examples of pseudoscience abound. Astrology is an ancient belief system that supposes that a person’s future is determined by the positions and movements of planets and other celestial bodies. Astrology mimics science in that astrological predictions are based on careful astronomical observations. Yet astrology is not a science because there is no validity to the claim that the positions of celestial objects influence the events of a person’s life. After all, the gravitational force exerted by celestial bodies on a person is smaller than the gravitational force exerted by objects making up the earthly environment: trees, chairs, other people, bars of soap, and so on. Further, the predictions of astrology are not borne out; there just is no evidence that astrology works.
For more examples of pseudoscience, look to television or the Internet. You can find advertisements for a plethora of pseudoscientific products. Watch out for remedies to ailments such as baldness, obesity, and cancer; for air-purifying mechanisms; and for “germ-fighting” cleaning products in particular. Although many such products operate on solid science, others are pure pseudoscience. Buyer beware!
Humans are very good at denial, which may explain why pseudoscience is such a thriving enterprise. Many pseudoscientists do not recognize their efforts as pseudoscience. A practitioner of “absent healing,” for example, may truly believe in her ability to cure people she will never meet except through e-mail and credit card exchanges.
She may even find anecdotal evidence to support her contentions. The placebo effect, discussed in Section 8.2, can mask the ineffectiveness of various healing modalities. In terms of the human body, what people believe will happen often can happen because of the physical connection between the mind and body.
That said, consider the enormous downside of pseudoscientific practices. Today more than 20,000 astrologers are practicing in the United States. Do people listen to these astrologers just for the fun of it? Or do they base important decisions on astrology? You might lose money by listening to pseudoscientific entrepreneurs; worse, you could become ill. Delusional thinking, in general, carries risk.
Meanwhile, the results of science literacy tests given to the general public show that most Americans lack a basic understanding of basic concepts of science. Some 63% of American adults are unaware that the mass extinction of the dinosaurs occurred long before the first human evolved; 75% do not know that antibiotics kill bacteria but not viruses; 57% do not know that electrons are smaller than atoms. What we find is a rift—a growing divide—between those who have a realistic sense of the capabilities of science and those who do not understand the nature of science, its core concepts, or, worse, feel that scientific knowledge is too complex for them to understand. Science is a powerful method for understanding the physical world, and a whole lot more reliable than pseudoscience as a means for bettering the human condition.
