Scientific method and methods of science

It is sometimes said that there is no such thing as the so-called "scientific method"; there are only the methods used in science. Nevertheless, it seems clear that there is often a special sequence of procedures which is involved in the establishment of the working principles of science. This sequence is as follows: (1) a problem is recognized, and as much information as possible is collected; (2) a solution (i. e. a hypothesis) is proposed and the consequences arising out of this solution are deduced; (3) these deductions are tested by experiment, and as a result the hypothesis is accepted, modified or discarded.

Task 4.1. Check up for comprehension.

1. Find two sentences which express two different viewpoints on the existence of "scientific method". 2. What words show that the first sentence is an opinion? 3. What word shows that these viewpoints are in opposition? 4. Find the words equivalent to "scientific method". 5. What procedure does the scientist follow in his research?

Task 5. VING FORMS: POSITION AND FUNCTION IN THE SENTENCE

Task 5. 1. Identify the structures and give Russian equivalents of the relevant part of the sentence.

1. Establishing relationship between the phenomena of the Universe is a major task of theory. 2. Having reported of his discovery of rays of unknown nature Bequerel excited the curiosity of Marie Curie. 3. Realizing the necessity for a different approach the physicists reluctantly abandoned the project. 4. Confining his attention to one problem the scientist will surely achieve its solution much sooner. 5. Putting the discovery to use sometimes requires more effort than making it. 6. Pointing out their mistakes to some people is often quite difficult.

 

Task 5. 2. Identify the structures give Russian equivalents.

1. Every new idea is immediately taken up and developed further, forming the initial point of an avalanche-like process. 2. It has been shown that there is a distortion of the ciystal lattice, accompanying the charge-ordered state. 3. What is worth doing is worth doing well. 4. At this stage innovation becomes a group and not an individual activity, involving both a sophisticated body of information and a sophisticated technology. 5. Soon Pierre Curie joined Marie Curie in her search for ihe "mysterious" substance, giving up his own research. 6. It is no good stressing a paradox if you wish to excite curiosity of the audience unprepared for the lecture. 7. In 1913 Bohr proposed the solar theory of the atom, giving rise to still greater activity in both theoretical and experimental nuclear physics. 8. Some people have been so scared reading about harmful effects of smoking that they gave up reading. 9. Now mention should be made of the fact that geochemistry applies the concepts of chemistry to terrestrial circumstances, studying the distribution of elements in the course of geologic evolution. 10. The editor could not help detecting many errors both of fact and of thinking. 11. Are these prognoses really worth making? 12. To find out more about the space scientists sent little moons, or satellites, circling in orbits above the Earth.

 

Task 5. 3. Substitute the proper English words from the list below for the Russian words in brackets.

l. His research (привело к установлению) a new principle.2.The success of the space research program (явился результатом соединения) the latest achievements in science and technology. 3. Using modern installations and techniques the scientists (удалось решить) a complicated engineering problem. 4. Pure science (стремится постичь) the laws of the material world. 5. Traditionally chemists (занимались измерениями) the properties of matter and (анализом) the reactions by which some chemical substances are transformed into others. 6. A quantum chemist (интерисует построение) adequate mathematical models of atomic and molecular structures. 7. Prof. E. was the first to see the advantages of the new approach and (настаивал на использовании) it to interpret the results. 8. Adequate theories often (избавляли ученых от проведения) many useless experiments. 9. This group of engineers (ответственна за модернизацию) the laboratory equipment. 10. The advent of electronic computers (способствовало освобождению) man's brain from the labour of measurement and computation.

 

to aid in freeing; to aim at understanding; to be concerned with measuring and analysing; to be interested in constructing; to be responsible for modernizing; to insist on making use of; to prevent scientists from making; to result from combining; to result in establishing; to succeed in working out.

Task 5. 4. Identify the structures and give Russian equivalents of the relevant part of the sentence.

1. If you never thought of asking a question you are not interested in having the answer. 2. If you want to succeed in interesting the audience you should not try surprising them with an isolated fact. 3. By having defined one's research objective one has already made the first, and the most important, step towards the final success. 4. Modern chemistry is primarily concerned with building structural bonds between the elements of matter. 5. Many useless experiments were prevented from being made by an adequate theory. 6. A true scientist is interested in being told about his mistakes. 7. Research is searching without knowing what you are going to find. 8. Any single card should contain notes from only one source. This will aid in arranging and organizing the materials lor your research paper. 9. We do not know how to solve the problem of interesting schoolchildren in science. 10. His research resulted in establishing a new mechanism of the process. 11. Some people say that theory is a device for saving time.

 

Task 5. 5. Identify the structures and give Russian equivalents of the relevant part of the sentence.

1. The possibility of there being life on Mars is very doubtful. 2. The most interesting of these phenomena is the reduction of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur, each concentrated at a different interface, two being out of immediate contact with air. 3.This is the principle of inertia - if something is moving, with nothing touching it and completely undisturbed, it will go on forever at a uniform speed in a straight line. 4. An understanding of these particles, in spite of their being connected with the basic forces of the universe, presents a tremendous challenge to the human intellect. 5. The test consists of repeated measurements of intensity with various sizes of apertures being used. 6. The difference between the two values probably accounts for the measured sensitivity being higher than that predicted by theory. 7. One of the objectives of carrying on research at the university is to provide intellectual exercise for the lecturer. This is achieved by the lecturer doing research between lectures and other duties.This presupposes the necessary equipment being available at the university. 8. Man's principal function in space being maintenance and repair work is beyond any doubt. 9. The 35-year gap in the appreciation of Mendel's discovery is often attributed to Mendel's having been a modest monk living in an out-of-the-way Moravian monastery. 10. A few more functional elements, germanium perhaps being a good candidate, may be discovered in the future.

 

Task 5.6. Give English equivalents of the italicized part of the sentences.

1. Мысль о том, что и ученые и общественность несут ответственность за решение этой проблемы, кажется вполне логичной в настоящее время. 2. История изучения пульсаров началась в 1968 году с того, что радиоастрономы объявили об открытии необычного класса объектов. 3. Эти объекты получили шутливое название «пульсары», причем это название быстро стало стандартным термином. 4. Считают, что каждое исследование начинается с постановки ученым проблемы. 5. Ученый получил новые доказательства того, что его гипотеза верна. 6. Так как большинство субатомных частиц имеет очень короткий период жизни, электрон, протон и нейтрон остаются основными объектами изучения в электронике.

 

Task 5. 7. Identify the structures and give their Russian equivalents.

1. It is not claimed that the research is aimed at deriving an entirely different set of axioms. 2. A bit of work was needed to establish this but once the result was accepted, it was the best instrument for exploring the atom. 3. In the early days of World War II many Engineers were faced with the task of mastering the techniques of using radar 4 Methods employed in solving a problem are strongly influenced by the research objective. 5. The inquiry could be greatly helped bv distinguishing two different classes of research techniques. 6. In one's search to understand what happens in this particular case, one cannot help being influenced by the history of quite another problem. 7. The question of collective scientific discoveries has already been raised, it having been suggested that a solution of some urgent problems can be best achieved that way. 8. During such experiments interfering influences must be excluded and an artificial environment created in which the contribution of the individual components can be taken account of and possibly even measured. 9. If the scientist succeeds in confirming his repeated observations it may be stated that an empirical law or rule of nature has been discovered. 10. Let us examine various types of such mispronunciations, remembering, of course, that they are mispronunciations only in the sense of being looked upon unfavorably by cultured speakers. 11. Social scientists and physical scientists, each group representing a diversity of specialized disciplines, were brought together to review some implications of the interaction between science and society. 12. The oceans and the atmosphere are strongly coupled systems and cannot very well be treated separately. The final circulation pattern is determined by the inleraction of the two systems, each system influencing the other in a complicated cycle of events. 13. The meteorological working group concluded that meteorological research can be furthered by a trained meteorologist making observations from an orbiting station. 14. It is generally accepted that experiments in geology are far more difficult than in physics and chemistry because of the greater size of the objects and because of the geologic time scale exceeding the human time scale by a million and more times. 15. General scientific melhods can be approached from a historical point of view by giving a brief account of the development of scientific concepts and theories. 16. Two types of scientific investigators may be distinguished: classicists and romanticists, the former being inclined to design schemes and to use the deductions from working hypotheses, the latter more fit for intuitive discoveries of functional relations between phenomena and, therefore, more able to open up new fields of study. 17. With extended operation in space being a design goal, special attention was given to reliability problems. 18. The lack of interest of neurophysiologists in the macromolecular theory of memory can be accounted for by recognizing that the theory, whether true or false, is clearly premature.

 

Task 6. Read the text to yourself and be ready for a comprehension check-up.

PURE AND APPLIED SCIENCE

As students of science you are probably sometimes puzzled by the terms "pure" and "applied" science. Are these two totally different activities, having little or no interconnection? Let us begin by examining what is done by each. Pure science is primarily concerned with the development of theories (or, as they are frequently called, models) establishing relationships between the phenomena of the universe. When they are sufficiently validated these theories (hypotheses, models) become the working laws or principles of science. In carrying out this work, the pure scientist usually disregards its application to practical affairs, confining his attention to explanations of how and why events occur.

Exact science in its generally accepted sense can be referred to as a family of specialized natural sciences, each of them providing evidence and information about the different aspects of nature by somewhat different working methods. It follows that mathematics in its pure sense does not enter into this frame, its object of study, being not nature itself Being independent of all observations of the outside world, it attempts to build logical systems based on axioms. In other words, it concentrates on formulating the language of mathematical symbols and equations which may be applied to the functional relations found in nature.

This "mathematization", in the opinion of most specialists, is witnessed first in physics which deals with general laws of matter and energy on subatomic, atomic and molecular levels. Further application of these mathematical laws and studies is made by chemistry and results in structural bonds between the elements of matter being established.

 

Task 6.1. Check up for comprehension.

1. Does the author give definition of both "pure" and "applied" science? 2. Find the word which is used as an equivalent of "sciences". 3. When does a hypothesis become a principle of science? 4. What questions is the pure scientist concerned with? 5. Find the words equivalent to "how and why events occur". 6. What is usually disregarded by the pure scientist? 7. What is generally understood by exact science? 8. How does the author describe "specialized" natural sciences? 9. Why does mathematics not belong to this family? 10. What is the objective of mathematics? 11. Is there only one definition of the objective? 12. What does the application of mathematical laws in chemistry result in?

 

SCIENCE AND EDUCATION.