The Science Corner
By Siiri Kivelä
Welcome to the first edition of The Science Corner! I plan on having multiple sections for every article. Some of the sections I'm planning are: things you can do at home, experiments, article reviews, creature feature, and cool science facts. I'm open to including more sections, and I'd love to know what the readers would like to see covered. Feel free to send me a message at: bacteriophage_pi@yahoo.com
For this first week, I want to give a very basic introduction to science and the scientific method, as it's very important, yet, I come across many people who don't really understand it. So first off, what is science? Science is how we learn about the universe by using testable explanations. Some of the fields included in science are physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, astronomy, psychology, healthcare, and engineering. This is an extremely short list as there are many more scientific fields.
As for the scientific method, that's how science is done. The most important part of the scientific method is that the results speak for themselves - if the hypothesis is not supported, then alternative ideas are looked at. If new results make an old theory no longer valid, then a new theory is made. Before I get into the scientific method itself, I want to make an important distinction here. The word "theory" is often used in non-scientific ways to mean a guess or a possible idea about how things happen. However, in science, a theory has been thoroughly researched and tested and is generally accepted as how things work. In science, a hypothesis is "the guess."
The first step in the scientific method is observation. It doesn't need to be complicated - it could be something as simple as wondering why birds sing in the morning. At this point, a scientist would research previous work and find out if the question has already been answered. If it hasn't, then they can move ahead. If the answer is known, a new observation is likely to arise from the research which can then be investigated.
Step two is to develop a hypothesis. This is where a scientist comes up with an idea about how something works or why something happens. From there, the third step is to make a prediction. Now, this is sometimes confused the hypothesis. The prediction is different, because the scientist says, "If my hypothesis is correct, this is what I expect will happen." For instance, let's say my hypothesis is that a plant that is only watered with Mountain Dew will die. Then my prediction would be that if I only water plants with Mountain Dew, they will die.
The next step is to test the hypothesis. So with the plants and Mountain Dew example, I would set up an experiment to test it. Setting up the experiment can be difficult, as you must control for all variables. The first thing I'll need to do is make sure I have a plant (or group of plants) that will be watered normally with water - maybe there's simply something wrong with my plants, and by having this "control group," I'll be able to observe that and know that I need to redo the experiment. I then need to make sure that both plants (or group of plants) are equal in all other ways except their watering. They need to be the same type of plant, in the same type of soil, at the same temperature, and getting the same amount of sunlight. I'd also want to make sure that I give them equal volumes of liquid, whether that be water or Mountain Dew.
Once my experiment is set up, I'd take note of the differences of growth in the plants and take note of whether one died. It's important in science to keep records of everything. In the example I'm using, I would describe my set up, and then record how much liquid I'm giving each plant every day, as well as writing down things such as how much light the plant is getting and the temperature, or whether I observe an animal disturbing the plant. All of this is important so that later, another scientist can reproduce your experiment.
After you've run your experiment, you can take your data and write it up so others can see what you've done. If you've taken good notes, it can then be reproduced by others, which is a key part of science. If someone else can't reproduce your results, then it can't be accepted into the body of knowledge we call science. If your prediction was true, then your hypothesis is supported. If not, then you make a new hypothesis and try again.
Many times, you make a new observation in the process of your original experiment, which allows you to continuously build on what you've learned. This may seem like a lot of work, but this is how we learn about the world and ensure that what becomes science has good data behind it.
Try an Experiment
Now that we've gone through the scientific method, why not try the experiment described above? If you don't have Mountain Dew, you can use any other liquid besides water.
You'll need: Two containers for planting (they'll need holes so the water can drain), soil, seeds, a sunny location, water, and another liquid of your choice.
Fast-germinating seeds are best as you'll get results sooner, but feel free to use whatever you want. Beans, peas, corn, squash, radishes, and sunflowers are all good options. Fill the containers with soil - make sure you use the same soil in each container! Then, plant the seeds. You'll want to plant the same amount of seeds in each container - this is easier with larger seeds. Make sure to follow planting instructions on the seed packet and plant them at an appropriate depth. If you don't have a packet, look it up online. Make sure you label your containers. You don't want to get them mixed up.
Place the containers in a sunny location and water. Try to give each pot the same amount of liquid. You can measure it out with tablespoons to make sure you're not giving one more than the other. It'll take a few days, but soon, you should have plants germinating in at least one pot. Record your results. Why do you think your results turned out the way they did? Is there something you might change in a second run? What other variables could you test?
Article Review
I don't have any articles to review at the moment. What I'd like to do is find subjects of interest to the readers. The way I'd like this to work is to have readers ask questions or simply ask for more information on a subject. Then I'll research the scientific literature and review the articles relevant to the subject.
Creature Feature
In this part, I'll pick an organism to discuss. This week's chosen animal is:
Horseshoe Crab
Horseshoe crabs are arthropods (the same group as lobsters, spiders, insects, and centipedes). Despite their name, they are not true crabs, which are in a group whose members are called crustaceans. Horseshoe crabs, in contrast, are chelicerates. Spiders and scorpions are also chelicerates.
While seemingly uninteresting at first glance, horseshoe crabs are fascinating. Their very similar looking ancestors were wandering around the oceans of earth over 450 million years ago! While the species we have today are not the same as those back then, they have not changed very much, as we can still recognize them all as horseshoe crabs. Because they've been around so long, they are considered "living fossils."
They have an extremely hard shell covering their bodies, and many sets of eyes. Their hard shell keeps them safe from predators. In fact, the adults don't have any natural predators. The only time an adult can be predated on is if they have flipped over and can't turn themselves.
Horseshoe crab blood doesn't contain the oxygen-carrying molecule hemoglobin that's found in vertebrate blood, including humans. They use another molecule called hemocyanin and as a result, their blood is blue. It clots extremely fast, so if a horseshoe crab is injured, it scabs over quickly. This is thought to prevent infection.
While the adults may not have predators, their eggs are a very important food source for migrating birds. They lay their eggs on the shore, and birds make a stop during their migrations to refuel on their journey. This can be seen on the Atlantic coast of North America. The eggs that aren't eaten by birds will hatch in about two weeks.
Cool Facts
The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. If you were to scale that down to a single calendar year, the first cells would appear in February. The first forms of animal life that we would recognize wouldn't appear until the middle of November. The age of dinosaurs would have started in December, and non-avian dinosaurs would have gone extinct by December 26. Mammals would have first appeared on the 14th of December, but humans wouldn't have appeared until 11:00 PM on December 31st.
Electric eels, which are not true eels but electric fish, can produce shocks up to 600 volts. They have the most powerful shock of electric fish.
Birds are actually dinosaurs - the line that led to modern birds broke off from the dinosaur line in the Jurassic Period 160 million years ago. They share many similarities including foot shape, feathers, scales, and a reduced genome size.
