The Scientific Approach

A Layperson's Guide

The Scientific Method

HD research can also be compared to erecting a building without knowing its dimensions. As of now, researchers only have a vague idea of the shape of the "building," as specified by the genetic information on chromosome 4. In time, as scientists learn more about the cellular and molecular basis of the disease, they will have a clearer idea of what the "building" actually looks like.

Creating a firm foundation, as the first order of business, is key. Before moving forward with his or her research, a scientist must look to the relevant data from past research and attempt to replicate the key results of other scientists. This step is to make sure that the foundation is sturdy before beginning to build the first wall, or the second. And after completing the second wall, one must make sure that it does not fall when the wind blows, so to speak, in the face of different experiments designed to knock it down.

The idea is to avoid building a flimsy house of cards, but rather to make a solid structure that can be inhabited (and tested) for many years and decades by future generations of scientists. Progress can be thought of either as building a new piece of the foundation that may not initially be connected to the rest, or it can be the addition of new pieces to the growing structure on the original foundation. Progress is accomplished by employing the scientific method as follows:

• Repeat earlier findings in your specific area of inquiry.
• Make one or more hypotheses—that is, succinct propositions about what you expect to find if you are right about a process or phenomenon. Be sure your propositions are suitable for empirical testing in laboratory experiments.
• Conduct an appropriate experiment, controlling for (that is, holding constant) conditions other than those specified in your hypotheses. Carefully observe and note what happens in detail. These details, in combination with the conditions under which they were obtained, are your results.
• Check your results against the original hypotheses: Do they support one or another of your propositions? Are they what you expected or predicted from one argument or another? Or do they require that you reject all your original hypotheses because you saw something new or unexpected?
• Explain what you saw and what that tells us. You may need to modify the original hypotheses or, if necessary, you may need to make entirely new ones that are consistent with your findings.
• Repeat this process until you have eliminated all but one remaining hypothesis. Note that the last hypothesis "left standing" is not what we might call "proven"; it is simply our best bet, given current knowledge. It, too, may be rejected one day when we have better information and understanding.

Although not all research progresses in such a linear fashion, the scientific method can nevertheless be conceptualized as a flowchart:

Fig. 1. "How scientific investigations proceed." (from Jones et al, 1994.)

The most time-consuming aspect of research—indeed, the heart of any scientific endeavor—is the continual knocking down and building up of the various parts of the knowledge-structure. Scientists can only make progress by first attempting to disprove previous hypotheses, including their own, to ensure the strength of the structure’s foundation. Researchers must also allow time to investigate unexpected results and decide how they fit (or don’t fit) into the emergent structure.

Overall, the scientific method provides scientists with an orderly, systematic way of approaching their research that, in the end, guarantees progress. But it is a multi-step process that cannot be shortened as a result of pressures either from the scientific community or the public without weakening the entire structure. The pace of research can, however, be accelerated by adding more trained scientists, by building and using machines that can allow experiments or observations more quickly and without bias, and by increasing the rate of flow of accurate information about the research, both within the scientific community and from scientists to the public which, directly or indirectly, funds most of these efforts.

Last Modified: 07/07/2007

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