Science, Legislation, Ethics, and Society Flashcards
What is science?
Using a methodical and rigorous approach to understand the natural world
What is a hypothesis?
An educated guess that can potentially explain an observation
What must a hypothesis be in order to actually be a hypothesis?
Testable and falsifiable
Is a hypothesis proven true? Is it proven to be true when multiple experiments support the hypothesis?
No, it is either rejected or not rejected based on analysis of the data. Multiple repeated experiments that fail to reject the hypothesis only support it, doesn’t prove that it is true as it may be only for the conditions tested
What is a theory?
A hypothesis supported by a huge amount of evidence, very close to scientific truth
What is a scientific consensus?
When about 80% of scientists agree on something
What are 6 responsibilities of a scientist?
- Be open minded
- Be truthful and accurate in your results
- Share knowledge and collaborate
- Conduct experiments in an ethical manner
- Be skeptical
- Pursue knowledge
Why might scientists have a responsibility to communicate with the general public?
If that information can benefit society as a whole, it should be released to the public. If scientists don’t tell the public, they might get their information from people who aren’t experts on that topic, like celebrities
Why might scientists not have a responsibility to communicate with the general public?
Most scientists aren’t trained for public communication, so why should it be the scientists that have to tell people
What are 8 ways scientists disseminate knowledge?
Peer reviewed papers, conference presentations, blogs, social media, podcasts, documentaries, reports, media interviews and articles
Which format of dissemination is the gold standard?
Peer reviewed papers
What are the steps in peer review?
- The paper gets submitted to the journal
- The paper gets sent to 2 or 3 reviewers who are also experts in that field
- The reviewers send in written feedback and make a recommendation
- The editor and editorial board make the final decision
- The paper gets published
What are the 4 options for what the reviewers can recommend in the peer review process?
Reject, major revisions and resubmit, minor revisions and accept, or accept
Does critical evaluation and feedback stop after a paper is published?
No, it is now available to a larger audience so other scientists can leave comments
What might cause a paper to be retracted?
If major flaws are found after the paper is published
Does a paper that has been proven wrong with new evidence get retracted?
No, the evidence at the time supported it
Why might a product be regulated?
For safety or environmental reasons
What does it mean when you have the rights to a product/the ownership of a product?
You have legislation that allows you and only you to exclusively possess something
What is a patent?
Legally protected exclusive right to an invention which lasts for 20 years in Canada
What are ethics?
A rigorous, systematic, objective analysis of what is right and wrong
If something is legal does it mean it’s ethical?
Definitely not. Ex. forced sterilization
What are values?
What is important to one particular individual
What are morals?
Codes of conduct that govern behaviour
What is the difference between values and morals and ethics?
Values and morals are more personal and subjective than ethics
What are the 4 traditional pillars of medical ethics?
- autonomy
- Nonmaleficence
- Beneficence
- Justice
What is autonomy?
People have the right to make their own informed decisions, can’t coerce anyone into doing something
What is informed consent?
People are given all the necessary information in an unbiased way to make their own decisions
What is beneficence?
Do good, there needs to be a benefit to doing the study
What is nonmaleficence?
Do no harm
What is justice?
Treat others equally, distribute benefits and burdens equally
For what two reasons does society’s opinion on scientific technology matter?
- Society can influence what research gets funded and how it is spent
- Technologies that society is more reluctant to accept might be more tightly regulated
What is post-truth?
The belief that everything is fake news, that we live in a time where people can blatantly lie and face no repercussions. Truth isn’t valued anymore
What is anti-intellectualism?
A backlash against experts, that they can’t be trusted
What is the Dunning-Kruger effect?
The relation between what people think they know/ their confidence vs what they actually know
At what level of knowledge are people most confident they know what they are talking about?
When they know nothing
How did people’s confidence change as they gained more knowledge about a subject?
It dropped as they realized how much they don’t know
Do experts in a subject have as much confidence as someone who has no idea? Why is this a problem?
No, experts have less confidence than people who know absolutely nothing. Problem because people who know nothing are more inclined to speak out
