Objectives Differentiate between science psuedoscience What is Environmental

Objective(s) Differentiate between science & psuedoscience.

What is Environmental Science? ? What is Science? ?

The Nature of Science Intuition leads to the flat Earth society and bloodletting; experiments lead men to the moon and microsurgery. - Seth Mnookin

The First Vaccination Up through the 20 th century, one of the most serious diseases of mankind was smallpox. One of out every 10 children born in France and Sweden died of smallpox. The only known “cure” was to contract the disease and recover. Some inoculated themselves with fluid and pus from the sick, hoping to contract a mild case and survive.

The First Vaccination A British physician named Edward Jenner observed that dairymaids living in his hometown often contracted cowpox, a nonlethal disease with similar symptoms to smallpox. He decided to intentionally infect a young boy with cowpox, then expose him to smallpox. Immunity was successfully Edward Jenner vaccinating a child with cowpox from a dairymaid. Source: Bettman Archive / Corbis. conferred to the boy. 5

Eradication A different virus was eventually discovered for use in smallpox vaccinations. Produced much milder symptoms. Smallpox was declared eradicated by the World Health Organization in 1980. The same basic technique has been used to develop vaccines for other illnesses, such as measles, tetanus, chickenpox, whooping cough, and others. A monument dedicated to smallpox eradication at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. Source: Wikimedia. 6

Basic Rules of Science assumes that everything in the universe can be explained, given enough data and experimentation. All ideas in science are constantly being tested, evaluated, and re-considered. Hypothesis: Testable prediction based on prior knowledge and observation. Can be supported or rejected based on an experiment. Theory: Broad explanation based on many experiments and high amounts of data. Examples: Evolution, Plate Tectonics, Big Bang Discoveries must be reproducible -- designed and recorded such that the results can be repeated by other researchers. 7

Pseudoscience 1. Complete Planet X Journal Entry 1. Must provide evidence of research (links on the bottom of handout) in your entry 2. Get out Principles of Science packet

Pseudoscience A far different idea is pseudoscience, which appears or claims to be science, but does not follow scientific principles. 9

Spontaneous Generation The theory that life arose spontaneously from non- living matter persisted from ancient times through the 19 th century. One recipe for life called for dirty garments and husks of wheat to be added to a jar. Wait 21 days, and mice appear! This belief was based in false science. Could it be replicated consistently? Were any other possible explanations tested? 10

Alchemy The primary goal of alchemists during the middle ages was to discover a way to transform materials of little value (such as lead) to gold. A chemist named Hennig Brand in 1669 was studying urine, observing that it had a color similar to gold. He accidentally discovered phosphorus; an element that glowed. Hennig, like other alchemists, kept his discoveries secret. The study of chemistry advanced little during this time. The Alchemist in Search of the Philosophers Stone (1771) by Joseph Wright. 11

Astrology is another example of pseudoscience. A “new” zodiac chart was created by the Minnesota Planetarium Society to reflect the change in the Earth’s rotation. 12

Objective(s) Explain each of the steps of the scientific method.

Scientific Method All scientific studies, regardless of complexity, follow the same series of steps, called the scientific method. 14

Scientific Method The first step is making an observation. Information gathered by noticing specific details of a phenomenon. Dr. Edward Jenner observed that dairymaids who contracted cowpox seemed to be protected from the more deadly smallpox. The Dairy Maid, 1650 s, by Aelbert Cuyp. 15

Scientific Method The goal is to be able to explain the observation. A hypothesis, or testable explanation, will be made based on the scientist’s prior experience and research. Hypotheses are preliminary explanations – they can and are often proven false. Dr. Jenner’s hypothesis was that exposure to cowpox would grant immunity to smallpox. The hypothesis must be tested. 16

Scientific Method The experiment tests the hypothesis under controlled conditions. A controlled experiment attempts to test a single variable, while keeping all others constant. The experimental group receives the variable, while the control group does not. Dr. Jenner’s experiment was to inoculate the 8 year- old son of his gardener with fluid from a cowpox pustule, allow the infection to pass, then repeat with a smallpox pustule. The boy (experimental group) survived 20 inoculations without succumbing to smallpox! The conclusion states whether or not the hypothesis is supported by the results of the experiment. 17

Scientific Method The final step is communication, where the results are published and reviewed by others to check for errors, bias, or other issues. Dr. Jenner submitted his study to the Royal Society for Medicine, but was told he needed more proof. “The Cow-Pock—or— the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation!—vide. the Publications of ye Anti -Vaccine Society. ” - Satirical cartoon, 1802. 18

The Power Braclet 19

Other Factors Affecting Experiments Accounting for every single variable in a scientific study is nearly impossible. There are many factors that can cause error. That is where probability comes in. This is the likeliness that a result occurred simply due to random chance. This can be countered by increasing sample size, or the number of observations used in an experiment or study. Dr. Jenner was able to locate several other parents who were willing to volunteer their children. He even included his own 11 month-old son in the study. The results were finally published. Jenner called his technique vaccination after the Latin word for cow “vacca”. 20

Apply Scientific Method to your question. What’s your question? Write your hypothesis. Design a procedure to test What data will you collect? How will your data be used to evaluate your hypothesis?

What is the hypothesis you are trying to test? What data will you collect? How will you represent your data? Draw an example. What other variables might you need to control for? Solutions? How will your sample size limit you experiment? How might you minimize bias in your experiment? 22

Controlled experiments aren’t always possible or ideal. Natural experiments are conducted in the field under normal circumstances. The advantage is that these experiments take place in a more accurate, realistic environment. The disadvantage is that natural phenomena are often very difficult to find.

Combating Bias Another significant problem in science is bias; the preference for an experiment to turn out in a certain way. Bias is not always intentional, but must be controlled by the experimental design. A blind experiment is conducted so the experimental subjects do not know which is the control and which is the experimental group. Eliminates the “placebo effect” A double-blind experiment also prevents the actual scientists from knowing which is the control or experimental group. 24

Scientific Fraud There are many examples of published studies or report that have been later found biased, flawed, or outright fraudulent. These are always detected, eventually, due to the scientific method and peer review. The net effect is loss of time, resources, and public mistrust. In 1998, Dr. Andrew Wakefield published a study in the British journal The Lancet documenting a link between the MMR vaccine and autism in children. In the following year, over a thousand articles were written about the possible link, very few by actual experts in the field. Vaccine rates dropped from 92% to 85% in the U. K. , with similar results in other countries. 25

Autism / MMR Retraction Wakefield’s conclusions were found out to be fraudulent and that he had manipulated the data. Several outbreaks of measles and mumps occurred across the world from 2002 -2008. The United States has seen a similar effect, with vaccination rates below CDC recommendations in several schools. According to a Time Magazine survey, 24% of adults place “some trust” in celebrities’ opinions on vaccines. 26

Background: Case Study of Beriberi Disease It is 1897 and people are dying in Java, an island in Indonesia or the Dutch East Indies. They all seemed to share the same hideous symptoms beginning with overall muscle weakness, loss of appetite, and eventually they suffered paralysis and eventually death by heart failure. This disease was called beri by the indigenous people. This was a word from their native language that meant “I cannot, I cannot. ” Scientists thought the disease might be caused by bacteria. (After all, since the discovery of bacteria, almost all previously unknown diseases were attributed to a bacterial infection. ) They decided to prove that a bacterium was the culprit by conducting an experiment. They used chickens as their trial subject. They injected a group of chickens with the blood from a patient who had beri and then to prove that the blood carried the “bacterium that caused the disease” they injected another group of chickens with saline or simple salt solution. Well, both groups got beri! So back to the starting board they went.

If a chicken is infected with the blood from a person sick with beri then the chicken will contract beri Other people being sick due to bacteria Exposure to beri “bacteria” Becoming sick with beri

Experimental: Chickens exposed to beri blood Control: Chickens not exposed to beri blood Chickens exposed to beri blood became sick. They would have incorrectly concluded that caused the illness NO!!! – It showed that their hypothesis was incorrect but that is important to learn in order to pursue the correct cause

One of the scientists who had been sent to work on this mystery was a Dutch physician and pathologist named Dr. Christiaan Eijkman. One day, as he walked around the hospital compound he observed his surroundings. He noticed that the cook fed every one of the patients the staple diet of the nation polished or white rice. Polished rice is wild, brown rice with the husk or outer layer rubbed off so that its color is white. It was the rice of choice of the middle class of the Indonesian people. He also noticed that the hospital staff fed the chickens (that would eventually be the chicken soup for the patients) wild rice. White rice was more expensive than brown rice, so the chickens were usually fed brown rice. Dr. Eijkman realized that this was an important observation and thought that maybe the wild rice contained something that the white rice did not. So he conducted another experiment. He divided the chickens once again into two separate groups. He fed one group of chickens only white rice and the other group only wild rice. Then he watched and waited. It turned out that the chickens that had been fed wild rice did not get sick at all, but the chickens that had been fed the polished or white rice became weak, lost their appetite and eventually died from beri. Eureka, the case was solved!

As Dr. Eijkman and others continued to research this interesting case, they found that polished rice lacked thiamine, a vitamin necessary for good health. This was actually the first "vital amine" or vitamin to be discovered. It is also called vitamin B 1. We've now known for more than a hundred years that brown rice is more nutritious than white rice. But most Asian cultures associate eating white rice with prosperity and eating brown rice with bad luck. Most rice is still milled or polished, both in Asia and elsewhere. In Europe and America both white rice and brown rice are consumed, but mostly white. In fact, some white rice is chemically fortified to add back the B vitamins. In 1929, Eijkman and Hopkins were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for this discovery.

Both groups of chickens became sick Polished rice vs. unprocessed rice Control group – chickens fed unprocessed rice Experimental group – chickens fed polished rice Get his experiment and results published.

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