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Theme 2 - The scientific method and the unifying theories of modern biology

Edited by
Mike Calver ,
Alan Lymbery ,
Jennifer McComb  and
Mike Bamford
Mike Calver
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, Western Australia
Alan Lymbery
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, Western Australia
Jennifer McComb
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, Western Australia
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Summary

From Theme 1 you understand the central place of the human species in environmental biology today. You also have a general understanding of science and how it might be applied to solving biological problems.

Biologist Hugh Gauch listed five key resources for research in the sciences:

  1. equipment to collect data

  2. computers and software for data analysis

  3. infrastructure, including libraries, colleagues and internet access

  4. technical training to use all the above, and

  5. a knowledge of the scientific method.

He argued that good research was often most impeded by a poor understanding of the fifth point, the scientific method.

Therefore in this second theme of Environmental Biology we explore the nature of the scientific method in detail. We also examine two of its most important contributions to modern biology: the great unifying theories of the cell and of evolution.

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Environmental Biology , pp. 21 - 22
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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