文档介绍：A CONCISE TEXT BOOK OF AGRICULTURAL ENGLISH
UNIT 1
FUNDAMENTAL METHODS IN LIFE SCIENCE
How is it that scientists probe so skillfully into the monument of life and
discover so much about its foundations? What is it about their manner of
thinking that yields such precise results? The scientific method is a formalized
way of answering questions about causation in the natural world. In principle,
the scientific method has three main steps (although in practice scientists work
in many different ways). The first step is to collect observations, phenomena
which can be detected by the senses (vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch).
Observations can be also made indirectly, through use of special equipment
(such as a microscope) that extended the range of perception. With practice,
we can become skilled at making systematic observations. This means
focusing one or more senses on a particular object or event in the environment,
and screening out the “background noise”of information that probably has no
bearing on our focus. Second, the scientist thinks of hypothesis, ideas about
the cause of what has been observed. The third step is experimentation,
performing tests designed to show that one or more of the hypothesis is more
or less likely to be incorrect.
Hypothesizing means putting together a tentative explanation to account
for an observation. No scientist can put forward an idea and demand that it be
believed as true, no questions asked. In science, there are no absolute truths.
There are only high probabilities that an idea is correct in the context of
observations and tests made so far. Instead of absolutes, there is suspended
judgment. This means a hypothesis is tentatively said to be valid if it is
consistent with observations at hand. You won’t(or shouldn’t) hear a scientist
say, “there is no other explanation!”More likely you will hear, “Based on
present knowledge, this explanation is our best judgment at the mo