MK Academy

The scientific method How the scientific method is used to test a hypothesis. Introduction A biology investigation usually starts with an observation—that is, something that catches the biologist’s attention. For instance, a cancer biologist might notice that a certain kind of cancer can't be treated with chemotherapy and wonder why this is the case. A marine ecologist, seeing that the coral reefs of her field sites are bleaching—turning white—might set out to understand why. How do biologists follow up on these observations? How can  you  follow up on your own observations of the natural world? In this article, we’ll walk through the  scientific method , a logical problem-solving approach used by biologists and many other scientists. The scientific method At the core of biology and other sciences lies a problem-solving approach called the scientific method. The  scientific method  has five basic steps, plus one feedback step: Make an o

Introduction In the  intro to biology  , we defined biology as the branch of science concerned with the study of living things, or organisms. That definition is pretty straightforward. However, it opens the door to more difficult—and more interesting—questions: What is life? What does it mean to be alive? You are alive, and so am I. The dog I can hear barking is alive, and so is the tree outside my window. However, snow falling from the clouds is not alive. The computer you’re using to read this article is not alive, and neither is a chair or table. The parts of a chair that are made of wood were once alive, but they aren’t any longer. If you were to burn the wood in a fire, the fire would not be alive either. What is it that defines life? How can we tell that one thing is alive and another is not? Most people have an intuitive understanding of what it means for something to be alive. However, it’s surprisingly hard to come up with a precise definition of life. Because