The scientific method is a series of steps used by scientists everywhere around the world to work through data, hypotheses, observations and experiments. One of the most excellent examples of how scientists have used this to further progress in the human race is in the curious case of Legionnaires disease. The elusive disease first struck in 1976 at a convention in Philadelphia, causing an epidemic that would be researched for many months to come. Scientists finally came to a conclusion about the disease after following the scientific method with vigor.
Understanding the problem in any situation is how you first approach solving it. Scientists determined, contrary to assumption, that Legionnaire’s disease was not a rare illness, but a “relatively common one for other outbreaks and for sporadic individual cases” (page 82). After determining this, the first step in the investigation was to figure out the characteristics of the illness, who had fallen ill, and when, and where they had specifically.
By following the scientific method, they learned these things through both observations and research. Having to figure out just what people attracted the illness and how they came to attract it was a huge task, seeing as
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Examples such as the Pontiac Fever outbreak in 1968, (which was rather unlike Legionnaires, though it showed seroconversion to the same agent as Legionnaires in 31 out of 37 tests), is why scientists have to adjust and modify their hypothesis. Which is the case with Legionnaires disease. Though they accepted their hypothesis that Legionnaires was an entirely unknown organism, they had to reject the hypothesis that it was a large rickettsia - thus modifying their hypothesis to fit the truth. The truth being that Legionnaires disease was caused by a new genus and species, which was aptly named: Legionella