THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Pseudoscience

Øhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=T9o83dct5VY
&feature=emb_logo 5 keys to differentiate science and
pseudoscience.

Øhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Iqnolba3o&feature=emb_log
o The danger of pseudosciences. Goberment of Spain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uon7hnujzA&pp=QAA%3D and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFDy-1i6g8I&feature=emb_logo
Curing COVID with pseudoscience
• https://www.elmundo.es/espana/2020/04/21/5e9983e9fdddff630a8b4666
.html Josep Pàmies y el MMS.
• https://www.elmundo.es/internacional/2020/04/24/5ea291adfc6c830929
8b45ae.html Donald Trump and injection of disinfectant.
• https://www.20minutos.es/gonzoo/noticia/4355108/0/denuncian-a-una-
presentadora-por-recomendar-tomar-dioxido-de-cloro-y-beberlo-en-
directo/ Hostess recommends taking chlorine dioxide.
• Other hoaxes about the coronavirus: brainstorming.
Antivacunas

• https://elpais.com/elpais/2020/01/16/planeta_futuro/1579177565_7
99366.html The 11 hoaxes that anti-vaccines repeat non-stop.

q Debate.
Against pseudoscience…
Some major scientific journals

• About medicine

• About science in general

 Daily life example

Let's imagine that we come home one day and, when we

go to turn on the television, it does not respond. How
would we apply the scientific method?

• Observation: The observation in this case would be made with respect to

the television set itself and the remote control that does not turn it on. We
would observe everything related to the object in question that we want to
study: its physical state, the cable connections, if the remote control has
batteries, if there is electricity in the rest of the house, etc.
• Hypothesis: After having made the pertinent observations, we would
formulate the probable hypotheses. Since the television is connected
to the socket and the rest of the house does have electricity, we
deduce that the fault that makes it not turn on has to be either in the
batteries of the remote control, or in the remote control itself.
television set or remote control.
• Experiment: In this way, we would carry out several experiments. For
example, we might try changing the batteries in the remote control
and try turning on the television now, or we might try turning the
television on directly with the button on the television box itself
instead of the remote, etc.
• Theory: From the results of the experiments, we would elaborate a theory
that contemplates all the information that we have. If after doing all the
experiments mentioned above the television still does not turn on, we can
rule out that the fault is in the television box or in the batteries of the
remote control. Therefore, it will seem likely that the fault must be in the
remote control itself or in some component of the box that is not related
to the power button.
• Conclusion: The conclusion will be the knowledge that we will obtain from
the previous steps. In this way, the conclusion will be that either the
remote control, or an element of the television that is not the power
button, or both at the same time, are faulty and, therefore, the television
does not turn on.
Laboratory Example: Discovery of Penicillin
• Observation: Alexander Fleming, in the 1920s, was away from his
laboratory for a while and when he returned he began to clean some
glass plates where he had grown a certain type of bacteria. Then he
noticed something strange: one of the plates had become contaminated
with mold. Interestingly, the area around the mold appeared to be free
of bacterial growth.
• Hypothesis: His observation told him that there might be a causal
relationship: the mold, or a substance produced by it, could prevent the
growth of bacteria.

• Experiment: Molds can be placed on cultures of bacteria (this would be

the experimental group) and leave a control group of bacteria without
mold. Both groups would be subjected to the same conditions.

• Conclusion: If after the experiment the bacteria in contact with the mold
die and those that are not in contact do not die, we will conclude that the
mold kills the bacteria. This is how the antibiotic penicillin was
discovered.
Dorothy Hodgkin (Nobel Prize in Chemistry in
1964)
Laboratory Example: Invention of Vaccines(Edward
Jenner)
• Observation: People who had cowpox did not get smallpox.
• Hypothesis: If a person has been intentionally infected with cowpox,
they will be protected against smallpox, even after an intentional
exposure to smallpox.
• Experiment: You infect a person with cowpox, and then try to infect
them with smallpox (note that Jenner did not use a control group in her
experiment).
• Conclusion: Infecting a person with cowpox protects against a smallpox
infection.
Task 1: Propose an example where the scientific method is applied