Biology In Focus: The Heart Of The Scientific Method

The scientific method has never been a rigid procedure that has been adhered to by scientists. Over time it has gone through dozens of iterations until the scientific community believed that the method could produce results which could be replicated and proved. As the times change, philosophers try to revise or create new methods to best fit new emerging information. Instead of proving what is right, philosophers argue the flaws of a method and the reasons why it cannot produce valid conclusions. This idea is the heart of the scientific method, that an idea cannot be proven but can be disproven. When I read the scientific method from the textbook Biology in Focus, by Lisa Campbell, I saw many of the problems that philosophers have been debating for centuries. In this particular method, it detailed a method which began by observing and collecting data, which was used to induce a hypothesis. Then using deductive

The method explains how one should initially gather a diverse amount of information using various tools. Although the method does not specify the context or type of information one should gather. The Biology department has hundreds of instruments, how is one supposed to know which tools to use and which way to use it. There are infinite ways to collect the data using various tools, which would be impossible to actually accomplish. This means that one must choose which tools they would like to use and how to use it, therefore collecting information based on how they see fit. This means the information is collected in a bias fashion, allowing the scientist to choose from a set of random tools and techniques. How is a method with such an expansive approach in collecting information supposed to be replicated? Every scientist who would attempt to replicate the results would obtain slightly different conclusions because the broad attempt in using many devices and