BSC 314 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Gametophyte, Sporophyte, Indeterminate Growth

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silvercicada472

26 Jun 2018

School

University of Alabama

Department

BSC

Course

BSC 314

Professor

Asma Hatouma

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Scientific Method

Botany, or any other science, is a body of knowledge accumulated over time by its

practioneers using a process called the scientific method. Both the facts and the

process used to obtain them are important in understanding botany. The scientific

method varies in details and application by its users, but in general consists of the

following steps: A problem is defined; information is accumulated; a hypothesis

(proposed answer) is formulated and tested experimentally; if the new data contradict

the hypothesis, the hypothesis is revised and tested until a conclusion is reached that

explains the phenomenon of interest. The final step is to publish the results so other

interested scientists will design experiments to validate or refute the work.

Science is an ever changing quest; new hypotheses are tested daily, and new ‐

information and conclusions are added constantly to the data base. When a sufficiently

large number of experiments reach the same conclusions, the hypothesis is

incorporated with others and becomes a theory. Theories are the foundations of

scientific knowledge and give rise to principles or laws. While theories sometimes are

modified or changed as new evidence accumulates, principles are rarely, if ever,

altered.

What Is a Plant?

Although it may seem unnecessary to begin by defining “plant,” in fact hundreds of

researchers—including several Nobel Prize winners—in laboratories all over the world

are discovering previously unknown relationships among living things by examining for

the first time the genetic codes that direct the very essence of being. In the process, our

ideas on what constitutes a plant are changing. While trees are still obviously plants,

and cats and dogs are still animals, the newly forming classifications separate algae

and fungi (mushrooms) from the plant kingdom and give super kingdom status to the ‐

bacteria. Thus restricted, the plant kingdom now includes, in general: mosses,

liverworts, hornworts, ferns, fern allies, gymnosperms, and flowering plants. Instructors

in most plant biology courses continue to discuss many of the removed “non plants” ‐

because of the significance of these organisms to the origin and development of the

acknowledged plants.

Characteristics of organisms

All living things, despite differences in appearance and size, share basic characteristics.

Organisms:

Are composed of cells, the smallest units able to conduct the functions of living.

Have genes, sequences of deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) that carry the

instructions for the organization and functioning of the organism.

Are made principally of four elements— carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen—

which were most abundant when the first life appeared eons ago on an early

Earth. They combine to form the familiar compounds associated with life, such as

—water (H 2O), carbon dioxide (CO 2), methane (CH 4), ammonia (NH 3) and a

host of others.

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Document Summary

Botany, or any other science, is a body of knowledge accumulated over time by its practioneers using a process called the scientific method. Both the facts and the process used to obtain them are important in understanding botany. The final step is to publish the results so other interested scientists will design experiments to validate or refute the work. Science is an ever changing quest; new hypotheses are tested daily, and new information and conclusions are added constantly to the data base. When a sufficiently large number of experiments reach the same conclusions, the hypothesis is incorporated with others and becomes a theory. Theories are the foundations of scientific knowledge and give rise to principles or laws. While theories sometimes are modified or changed as new evidence accumulates, principles are rarely, if ever, altered. In the process, our ideas on what constitutes a plant are changing.

Related Questions

please help me answer some science questions:

Question 1: Choose all answers that correctly complete the following statement:

Science is...

Question 1 options:

A)	a set of careful steps followed in order by people in lab coats.

B)	just a collection of facts.

C)	a process of learning about the natural world.

D)	unchanging and static - once we know a scientific fact it does not change.

E)	a method that can answer any question.

F)	testing ideas with evidence.

Question 2 : "What is the meaning of life?" is a question that cannot be answered by science because

Question 2 options:

A)	it is not an interesting enough question for scientists.

B)	it involves collaboration with others to fully answer.

C)	it deals with supernatural explanations.

D)	it only has one answer.

Question 3 : Ignaz Semmelweis wanted to explain the high rates childbed fever mortality in his hospital in the 1800s. How did he use science?

Question 3 options:

A)	He wore a lab coat while in the maternity ward. He did not wear a lab coat in the rest of the hospital.

B)	He tested the idea that doctors caused the deaths by comparing mortality rates of patients treated by doctors that disinfected their hands (in between patients) with the mortality rates of patients that had dirty-handed doctors.

C)	He read a scientific journal about bacterial causes of childbed fever.

D)	He changed birthing procedures so that women gave birth on their sides and were assisted by doctors that disinfected their hands.

Question 4 : When determining which hypothesis or model to accept, scientists should

Question 4 options:

A)	choose the most popular explanation.

B)	choose the hypothesis supported by evidence.

C)	go with their favorite hypothesis (as long as it's still shiny).

D)	support the most recent hypothesis to be proposed as a plausible explanation.

Question 5: What happens when new evidence does not support a current scientific hypothesis (or current understanding of a natural phenomenon)?

Choose all that are correct.

Question 5 options:

A)	We should re-evaluate the current understanding and possibly reject past ideas based on the new evidence.

B)	The scientific community labels the scientist that collected the evidence as an unreliable quack.

C)	Scientists throw out the new evidence since obviously the experimental design must be flawed.

D)	Scientists should test the idea in a novel way (inspire new ideas) to determine if the new evidence is consistent with a new understanding.

Question 6: To gain entrance to the Science club, you should:

Question 6 options:

A)	fabricate your data often to support your favorite hypothesis.

B)	take all the credit for yourself.

C)	check all the boxes on the science checklist. If you miss even one, you're denied your scientist ID card.

D)	behave scientifically (preferably in a lab coat).

Question 7 : Choose all the answers that correctly complete the following statement:

Scientists interact with the scientific community by...

Question 7 options:

A)	speaking at conferences.

B)	locking themselves in ivory towers.

C)	being inspired by other scientists and testing their ideas in new and novel ways.

D)	only listening to NPR (National Public Radio) on Science Fridays.

E)	publishing in science journals.

Question 8: Which of the following questions CANNOT be answered using the scientific method?

Question 8 options:

A)	How does migration affect the reproductive success of monarch butterflies?

B)	Should local communities invest money in sustainable farming practices instead of new infrastructure (e.g., roads and bridges)?

C)	How does coastal development affect wetland biodiversity (number and types of organisms present)?

D)	Is water a toxic substance?

E)	Do pesticides cause developmental changes in frogs?

Question 9 : Choose all of the following answers that correctly completes the following statement:

Representing the scientific method in a linear, cookbook sequence:

Question 9 options:

A)	incorporates the important concept of testing ideas with evidence

B)	does not capture how science really works.

C)	is too simplified.

D)	incorrectly implies that there is an endpoint to science. (If the scientific method is a simple progression, once a valid conclusion is reached, science is done!)