Lecture 2/3: Science Flashcards
empirical
- things that can be recognized by the senses
- Different from law which is logical
progressive
aspect of science that is unlike art
- By finding out things are wrong we can make process
- Wouldn’t say art of today is truer than art of 100 years ago
- But with science we find out things today that are truer than what we previously knew
falsifiable
aspect of science that is unlike psychological and social theories (aren’t testable)
- Science can be proven or disproven
hypothesis
a proposed explanation for a set of observations about the natural world; educated guess
law
a generalization about some aspect of the natural world that appears to be true in all cases; descriptive account of how nature will behave under certain conditions
- Broadly true along time and space
theory
an explanation about some aspect of the natural world that has been repeatedly tested and confirmed
- most reliable form of scientific knowledge
- at risk of being replaced by a more sophisticated description of nature
morphology
the form and structure of a biological organism
normative
science is normative; the culture dictates how observations are interpreted and what questions are worth asking
oviraptor
egg thief; no teeth but meat eater; close relatives found with pygostyles (for feathers)
- found on a nest of protoceratops eggs but now have evidence that it laid its own eggs and protected them
a new study looking at the skull of a tyrannosaurus suggests that they had lips which covered their teeth
this idea is a scientific HYPOTHESIS
scientific journal
specialized publication for evaluating and sharing scientific research between scientists
peer review
a process used in scientific journals where multiple scientists (usually anonymously) argue for the publication or rejection of an article
corroboration
when multiple studies/techniques support the same hypothesis; critical part of theory building
- basically different lines of evidence that support same idea
