Principles of Biology
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Biologists use scientific principles to study living things Like any scientist, a biologist uses a hypothesis to test an interesting question by various experimental techniques. A hypothesis allows making a prediction of what is or should happen. This prediction can be tested and the outcome allows either confirming (verification) or rejecting (falsification) the hypothesis. Discoveries are very important in science. A discovery is a special type of hypothesis, namely to search and find something not seen or explained before, yet something that is similar enough to already known things that we can categorize and describe it (e.g. a new species). Science also makes use of theories,
not just hypotheses. A scientific theory, unlike the common saying
‘it’s just a theory’, is a well established fact verified by several
independent experimental observations. The latter have been obtained
through hypothesis testing. With its many theories, science comes
as close to the truth as is possible (objective truth). Scientific
theories include Einstein’s theory of general relativity and
To read more about theories, testable hypothesis and falsification read Karl Popper. To read more about the process of science, read Thomas Kuhn. H
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