18 Introduction 



SCIENCE AND THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD 



Science.^ — Perhaps science may be best described as a manner of 

 thinking; that is, emphasis is placed upon open-mindedness, objective 

 evaluation, and controlled experimentation. In some respects science 

 might be considered as simply formalized common sense. A concise 

 dictionary definition has been given as "organized exact knowledge 

 capable of verification." 



In most cases, the knowledge, as in this definition, refers to facts 

 which have been accumulated by patient observation or experimenta- 

 tion. These facts have negligible value unless they are organized in 

 such a way as to indicate interrelationships. Clearly innumerable facts 

 exist in nature, and care must be taken to recognize those that are 

 pertinent to the subject under consideration. 



Facts that are accumulated must be as quantitative as possible. The 

 scientist does not speculate about the number of animals present in an 

 area ; he devises methods of counting them. The farmer may observe 

 that his cattle grow more rapidly on one ration than on another, but 

 the trained agriculturist is satisfied only if he knows the relationship 

 of the rate of growth to the amount of food consumed. 



As a further check upon the accuracy of observations, an essential 

 part of science is that the facts must be verifiable by more than one 

 individual. 



To be of value, discovered facts must be readily available. For this 

 purpose, there are numerous scientific journals in which observations 

 and experiments are recorded. This serves the double purpose of 

 making the facts generally available and also of permitting other workers 

 to verify them. In order for this last to be accomplished, scientific 

 reports include not only the facts, but also the methods by which they 

 were discovered. 



The Scientific Method. — While the scientific technique is a method 

 by which great discoveries have been made, it is not at all mysterious. 

 Essentially it consists of the gathering of facts, their objective evalua- 

 tion, the discovery of generalizations from these facts, and their continual 

 testing. In the formation of any scientific law or generalization, cer- 

 tain steps are recognizable. 



1. The gathering of facts. The first step in any scientific investiga- 

 tion is the gathering of numerous facts relating to the subject under 

 study. These facts must be gathered without prejudice or preconceived 

 ideas. 



