How Scientists Work?

Designing an Experiment

Observation (You observ)

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Form a Hypothesis (sing.) – (hypotheses .- plural)

Before technology and Civilization, people thought that living things appeared from non-living
things.

Observations they made:

Maggots showed up on meat

Rodents (mice and rats) appeared on grains (corn, wheat, rice, etc.)

Beetles showed up on cow dung

Questions arose from these observations:

How or why Maggots showed up on meat?

How or why? Rodents (mice and rats) appeared on grains (corn, wheat, rice, etc.)

How or why? Beetles showed up on cow dung

Hypothesis: Spontaneous generation: life could arise from non-living matter.

1668.- Franceso Redi (Italian physician – doctor)

Proposed a different for the appearance of maggots

OBSERVED.- These organisms appeared on meat a few days after flies were present.

ASSUMPTION: Flies laid eggs on the meat, and eggs were too small tobe seen

NEW HYPOTHESIS

Tested this hypothesis.

How do you test a hypothesis? SET UP A CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT

Experiment has factors:

Variables that can change

Examples: equipment used

Type of material

Amount of material

Light

Time

Variables can be changed

There are different kinds of experiments:

Controlled experiment

Manipulated variable.- is the variable that is deliberately changed

Responding variable.- The variable that is observed in response to the

manipulated variable.

BASED ON HYPOTHESIS.-

Redi.- Made a prediction

Keep flies away from meat

Prevent appearance of maggost

Designed an experiment

Controlled variables Responding Variables

Jars of meat Jars of meat

Location Location

Temperature Temperature

Time Time

Not cover the jars COVERED the jars

(gauze) (gauze)

Maggots showed up Maggots did not appear

RECORDING AND ANALYZING RESULTS

Keep records of observations (data)

Notebooks

Journals

Drawings

Computers

Verbal records (voice recordings)

Redi kept records

Through his records and observations he showed that maggots appeared on

Meat in opened jars and in the closed jars none.

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

Using the data from the expriment

Evaluate the hypothesis

Draw a valid conclusión.- use the evidence to determine if hypothesis is valido r not.

OBSERVE

ASK QUESTIONS

EXPERIMENT

OBSERVING, RECORD DATA

EVALUATE HYPOTHESIS
DRAW A CONCLUSION

PUBLISHING AND REPEATING INVESTIGATIONS

To reproduce results of an experiment.

Nature behaves in a consistent manner.

Results will be the same.

Usually, scientist’s test another’s investigations.

In other words, scientists repeat other experiment.

An example is Redi.

Redi made a controlled experiment to refute the Spontaneous generation hypothesis

He then communicated his conclusions in a book.

NEEDHAM’S TEST OF REDI’S FINDINGS

Later, Anton van Leeuwenhoek (Holland, Netherlands)

He did an experiment: Lenses that let him magnify tiny objects.

He had no intention of discovering anything, but he found microorganisms in rainwater.

These little living things.- “animalcules” or tiny animals.

He shared his results with other scientists.

His results (Leewenhoek’s results) revolutionized the Spontaneous Generation Theory because
nobody could agree in these microorganisms were alive, or if they even existed.

1700’s NEEDHAM

Attacked Redi’s work

He claimed that Spontaneous generation could occur underthe right conditions.

He made an experiment:

He sealed a bottle of gravy,

He heated it (put it on fire)

 Stated that the heat killed all living things that might be in the gravy

Days later, he examind the contents and found activity.

Inferred that “These little animals, can only have come from juice of the gravy”

SPALLANZANI`S TEST OF REDI’S FINDINGS.-

Lazzaro Spallanzani read Redi’s and Needham’s work

Spallanzani said that Needham had not heated his samples enough

He decided to improve Needham’s experiment

Spallanzani boiled 2 containers of gravy

He boiled assuming that the heat would kill the living things or microorganisms.

He sealed one jar, he left another opened

Days after the open jar had microorganisms, and the closed one didn’t.

Spallanzani`s conclusion: Nonliving gravy did not produce living things

Microorganismis in the unsealed jar were offspring of microorganisms that had

entered the jar through the air.

His experiment and Redi’s work supported the hypothesis that new organisms are produced by
existing organisms.

FEBRUARY 22, 2022

Pasteur´s Test of Spontaneous Generation

1800’s Some scientist’s still supported spontaneous generation Hypothesis.

Spallanzani’s experiment was unfair because he excluded the air.

1864 Louis Pasteur

Found a way to settle the argument

First: He designed a flask that had a long curved neck

Second: Flas kwas in the open air, but the microorganisms from the air did not

Make their way into the flask.

Result: The neck protected the content from the microorganism.

The broth was free of living things.

THE IMPACT OF PASTEUR

Discoveries: Had an impact on society as on scientific thought.

1. He saved the French wine industry

The French wine as troubled by souring of wine

2. He saved the silk industry

The silk industry had the silk worm disease

 3. He uncovered the nature of infectious diseases

He showed that they were the result of microorganisms entering the

bodies of the victims.

PASTEUR WAS A PROBLEM SOPLVER.

 TIMELINE OF THE SPONTANEOUS GENERATION HYPOTHESIS

SPONTANEOUS HYPOTHESIS was accepted until 1668

YEAR NAME DISCOVERY

1668 Francesco Reddy Maggots
Anton Leeuwanhoek Discovery of microorganisms
1665-1668 in rainwater
1700’s John Needham Refuted Redi’s work
In favor of Spontaneous
generation
Boiled gravy
Sealed one flask
Found microorganisms
1760 Spallanzani Improved Needham’s work
Boiled better
Sealed one flask
Left one opened
Sealed no micoorganisms
1800’s Louis Pasteur Settled Spontaneous
generation conflict
Designed flask with swan
neck
PASTEUR’S IMPACT ON SOCIETY (PROBLEM SOLVER)

1. He settled the Spontaneous Generation Hypothesis conflicto

2. He saved the French wine industry
3. He saved the silk industry.
4. He uncovered infectious diseases, microorganisms entering the body

HOW A THEORY DEVELOPS

1. Numerous investigations build up

2. Hypothesis have to be well supported
3. Research and experiments
4. Conclusions

Theory: is a well tested explanation that unifies a range of observtions.

Theories enable scientist to make accurate predictions about new situations.

Examples:

 Big Bang Theory.

 Hubble's Law of Cosmic Expansion.
 Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion.
 Universal Law of Gravitation.
 Newton's Laws of Motion.
 Laws of Thermodynamics.
 Archimedes' Buoyancy Principle.
 Evolution and Natural Selection.