Intuition leads to the flat Earth society and bloodletting; experiments lead men to the moon and microsurgery.

- Seth Mnookin
 Science is the pursuit and application of the natural and social world
through the collection and analysis of evidence.
 There are four major concepts in the pursuit of science:
 Facts are observations that we make about the world.
 Hypotheses are proposed, testable explanations of observations that can
serve as a basis for experimentation.
 Theories are much broader explanations of various observations that have
been tested and confirmed through observation and experimentation.
 Laws describe a constant phenomenon of nature, but do not explain it.

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 A far different idea is pseudoscience – practices or beliefs that appear or
claim to be scientific, but does not follow scientific principles.
 The claim is not repeatable or reproducible.
 The claim is not backed by evidence.
 No alternative explanations for the claim have been tested.
 There are many examples of pseudoscience throughout science,
impacting the disciplines of biology, chemistry, and astronomy.

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 Spontaneous generation is a theory that life can arise from non-living
matter.
 This idea arose sometime in the 4th century B.C., and persisted through the
mid-19th century.
 This is based on observations, such as:
 Beetles will appear in piles of animal dung.
 Maggots will grow out of rotting meat.
 Mice will generate from jars containing
dirty garments and husks of wheat.
 Fleas will arise from dust.
 Spontaneous generation is considered pseudoscience, because:
 No alternative explanations were considered.
 No controlled experiments were conducted to test it.

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 Since the time of ancient Greece,
many chemists believed that all
matter was composed of four
elements: earth, water, air, and fire.
 Alchemy used this hypothesis to try
to devise ways to transform common
elements (like lead) into gold.
 This led to many early discoveries in
chemistry, such as Hennig Brand
discovering phosphorous as he tried
to isolate gold from his own urine!
 Alchemists kept much of their
research a secret, and this lack of
knowledge sharing kept progress in
the field of chemistry at a standstill
The Alchemist in Search of the Philosophers Stone
for many centuries. (1771) by Joseph Wright.

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 Astrology is the belief that the
movements and positions of stars
and planets affects the natural
world.
 This is partially based on the
zodiac, a series of constellations
that the sun crosses from the
perspective of the Earth.
 The original 12 zodiac signs were
recorded by the ancient
Babylonians in about the 5th century
B.C., but are no longer accurate.
 A “new” zodiac chart was created by
the Minnesota Planetarium Society
to reflect a shift in the Earth’s axis.
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 Scientists all follow the same basic set of
steps when attempting to answer a
question or explain an observation, called
the scientific method.
 The scientific method has been used to
solve some of the greatest problems to face
humanity, including the treatment of
disease.

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 Up through the 20th century, one of the most serious diseases of mankind
was smallpox.
 The most common form of smallpox had a 30% fatality rate.
 The only known “cure” was to contract the disease and recover.
 Some inoculated themselves
with fluid and pus from the sick,
hoping to contract a mild case
and survive.
 A British physician named Edward Jenner observed that dairymaids living
in his hometown often contracted cowpox, a nonlethal disease with
similar symptoms to smallpox.
 He decided to intentionally
infect a young boy with cowpox,
then expose him to smallpox.
 Immunity was successfully
conferred to the boy.
 This discover serves as the basis for
all vaccines used today, which have
prevented over 700,000 deaths in
the past 20 years alone. Edward Jenner vaccinating a child with
cowpox from a dairymaid. Source:
Bettman Archive / Corbis.
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 The first step in the scientific method is making an observation,
information gathered by noticing specific details of a phenomenon.
 Dr. Edward Jenner observed that dairymaids who contracted cowpox seemed
to be protected from the more deadly smallpox.

The Dairy Maid,

1650s, by Aelbert
Cuyp.

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 The goal is to be able to explain
the observation.
 A hypothesis, or testable
explanation, will be made based
on the scientist’s prior experience
and research.
 Hypotheses are preliminary
explanations – they can and are
often not supported by the
resulting experiment.
 Dr. Jenner’s hypothesis was that if
a child was exposed to cowpox ,
they would become immune to
smallpox.

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 The experiment tests the hypothesis under controlled conditions, with
carefully defined variables.
 The independent variable is the new factor or condition that is to be
introduced and tested.
 The dependent variable changes as a result of the independent variable, and
will be measured and recorded as data.
 Controlled variables are kept constant throughout the experiment.
 Dr. Jenner’s experiment was to inoculate the 8 year-old son of his gardener
with fluid from a cowpox pustule, allow the infection to pass, then repeat
with a smallpox pustule.
 The boy survived 20 inoculations without succumbing to smallpox!
 The conclusion states whether or not the hypothesis is supported by the
results of the experiment.

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 The final step is communication, where the results are published and
reviewed by others to check for errors, bias, or other issues.
 Dr. Jenner submitted his study to the Royal Society for Medicine, but was
told he needed more proof.

“The Cow-Pock—or—
the Wonderful Effects
of the New
Inoculation!—vide. the
Publications of ye
Anti-Vaccine Society.”
- Satirical cartoon,
1802.

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 Accounting for every single variable in a scientific study is nearly
impossible; there will be variability in all data.
 Margin of error is an estimate of the amount of random sampling error in a
set of data due to errors in measurement, experimental design, or other
factors.
 The margin of error can be
reduced by increasing
sample size, or the number of
observations used in an
experiment or study.

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 Dr. Jenner was able to locate several other parents who were willing to
volunteer their children. He even included his own 11 month-old son in
the study.
 The results were finally published. Jenner called his technique
vaccination after the Latin word for cow “vacca”.

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 Controlled experiments aren’t always possible or ideal.
 Natural experiments are conducted in the field under normal
circumstances.
 The advantage is that these experiments take place in a more accurate,
realistic environment.
 The disadvantage is that natural phenomena are often very difficult to find.
 Another significant problem in science is bias; the preference for an
experiment to turn out in a certain way.
 Bias is not always intentional, but must be controlled by the experimental
design.
 A blind experiment is conducted so the experimental subjects do not
know which is the control and which is the experimental group.
 Eliminates the “placebo effect”
 A double-blind experiment also prevents the actual scientists from
knowing which is the control or experimental group.

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 There are many examples of published
studies or report that have been later
found biased, flawed, or outright
fraudulent.
 These are always detected, eventually,
due to the scientific method and peer
review.
 The net effect is loss of time, resources,
and public mistrust.
 In 1998, Dr. Andrew Wakefield
published a study in the British
journal The Lancet documenting a
link between the MMR vaccine and
autism in children.

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 Although the study was
retracted, much of the public
trust in vaccines was shaken,
and vaccine rates dropped in
many countries.
 Pseudoscience books, articles,
and speakers against the use of
vaccines have become
increasingly prevalent, even
though there is no evidence to
support their claims.
 Similar movements can be
seen opposing climate change
and the use of genetically- “Green our vaccines” was a rally held in 2008
to raise awareness of supposedly toxic
modified organisms (GMOs). substances in vaccines.

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