May 9, 2017 Science, Technology and Society

Myth of Science
1. Science is a system of beliefs.
• Many students, teachers and the general public believe that science is a
system of beliefs
• What distinguishing science is its continuing search for evidence in natural
phenomena.
• Although we naturally look for evidence to support ideas, scientific ideas
are established only after compelling evidence has accumulated from
observation of nature.
• Scientists use reasoning and imagination, study the work of other scientist
and collaborate with others, always looking for evidence to support or
disprove their ideas.
• Rather than a belief system, science is based on empirical evidence
provided by observations of the natural world.

JOVENAL V. DELA CRUZ, JR. - PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY

MINDANAO
2. Most scientists are men because males are
better at scientific thinking.
• There is no evidence that men are inherently better at science.
• This idea is a remnant of historical prejudice and not true
understanding of the history and nature of science.
• In many societies, this attitude often make it difficult or impossible for
girls and women to pursue science, to the point that a female
scientist like astronomer Caroline Hershel (1750-1848) had to
disseminate her research through her brother William and John.
• Although women are still a minority in some fields, women like Marie
Curie, Rosalind Franklin and many others stand among the giants of
modern science.
JOVENAL V. DELA CRUZ, JR. - PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY
MINDANAO
3. Scientists rely heavily on imagination to
carry out their work.
• There is no doubt that scientists rely heavily on their imagination
in carrying out their work.
• Creative imagination has always been important part of science.
• Scientists draw upon their imagination and creativity to visualize
how nature works, using analogies, metaphors, and mathematics.
• Scientists are often stereotyped as nerdy, serious – looking
individuals in lab coats, conducting laboratory experiments that
require superior intellect to be understood.
• It is easy to forget that it requires imagination to see the problem
and possible solution.

JOVENAL V. DELA CRUZ, JR. - PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY

MINDANAO
4. Scientists are totally objective in their work.
• Many believe that scientist are totally objective in their work.
• Scientists like all other humans, are attached to their work.
• They have been known to look for evidence to support their favoured or
promising ideas, sometimes overlooking and even rejecting that are
contrary to their own beliefs.
• No indications that scientists actively practice programs to search for
disconfirming evidence.(As Popper says Science can advance only
through a string of what he called conjectures and refutations)
• theory-laden observation (a psychological notion)
• the allegiance to the paradigm.

JOVENAL V. DELA CRUZ, JR. - PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY

MINDANAO
5. The scientific method is the accepted guide
for conducting research.
• For many years scientists have tried to correct the idea that the scientific method is
the only correct way to do science.
• This “a method of science” has a strong hold in science teaching but is not science.
• Posters are still hang in science classrooms listing the steps of the scientific method
and are still used to judged students’ procedures in science fair competitions.
• There is no logical or procedural method by which the pattern is suggested because if
there is then it goes against the creative nature and element of science.
• Scientific papers seem to follow the scientific method but are recxonstructed to
account for key elements of the study.
• The actual events for any investigations varies considerably and may take many
wrong turns and dead ends.

JOVENAL V. DELA CRUZ, JR. - PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY

MINDANAO
6. Experiments are carried out to prove cause-
and-effect relationships.
• At first, this statement seems correct, but, however, the statement is
flawed.
• In science, though nothing stands as proven or completely true.
• Controlled experiments only provides evidence that either supports
or fails to add support to a hypothesis, not absolute proof.
• these contribute to the cause and effect that can be durable but
tentative, always awaiting further evidence.

JOVENAL V. DELA CRUZ, JR. - PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY

MINDANAO
7. All scientific ideas are discovered and tested
by controlled experiments.
• It is a myth that the most credible scientific theories are supported
by controlled experiments.
• Not all of the supports from theories comes from experiments.
• Examples: Big Bang Theory, Plate Tectonic Theory, The Expanding
Universe, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, Heliocentric Theory were
developed through observation rather than experiments.
• Science uses all types of investigative procedures and evidence
gathering which are all subject under the lens of scientific community.

JOVENAL V. DELA CRUZ, JR. - PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY

MINDANAO
8. A hypothesis is an educated guess.
• A hypothesis is often called an educated guess but it is rather rigorous
than a mere guess. (here, we may argue that a mere “guess” is
elevated to a higher degree by the word educated.)
• A guess is usually thought of as a judgment with little information.
• Scientist usually know a great deal of information about a
phenomenon before forming a hypothesis to be subjected to test.
• ““In the scientific world, the hypothesis typically is formulated only
after hours of observation, days of calculating and studying, and
sometimes years of research into the phenomena of interest” (Galus
2003).
JOVENAL V. DELA CRUZ, JR. - PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY
MINDANAO
 9. A theory becomes a law when it is supported by
a great deal of scientific evidence.
• Laws and theories are distinct types of knowledge.
• Laws do not become theories nor do theories become laws.
• Laws describe a phenomenon or pattern in nature. Laws hold true
under most conditions, but can be modified or discredited.
• A theory is used to explain a phenomenon.
• Theories pertain to complex events and combine many facts, concepts,
and laws to form scientific understandings.
• A good example of this is the law of conservation of mass in chemistry
and the atomic theory used to explain it.
JOVENAL V. DELA CRUZ, JR. - PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY
MINDANAO
 10.Scientific ideas are tentative and can be
modified or disproved but never proved.
• This is the reverse of item #6 and is a true.
• Although Scientific theories are anchored on considerable amount of
evidences and are considered durable, they are considered provisional and are
subject to change and rejection.
• Theories are inferred explanations and science is a way of knowing that does
not represent absolute truth. This way of thinking removes science from being
an all-knowing human enterprise.
• “They may survive these tests; but they can never be positively justified: They
can neither be established as certainly true nor even as ‘probable’” (Popper
1963, vii).
• However, scientific theories as ideas built on shaky facts and flimsy evidence
such that science have held up to considerable scrutiny and have shown to be
durable.
JOVENAL V. DELA CRUZ, JR. - PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY
MINDANAO
11. Technology preceded science in the history
of civilization.
• Technology preceded science in the history of civilizations.
• Tool making for survival began long before man understood how or
why they worked.
• Technology invents devices and systems to aid in human survival and
to improve life.
• Science provides a better fundamental understanding of nature.
• Today science and technology are closely associated, whereby
technology supports the advancement of science and science
supports the progress of technology.

JOVENAL V. DELA CRUZ, JR. - PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY

MINDANAO
 12. In time, science can solve most of
society’s problems.

• Science has improved life considerably for many people on the planet but
not everyone in the world.
• Many problems in the world are political in nature, whereby individuals
and governments promote or suppress economic and scientific
development in their country.
• Science has provided us with the knowledge of how to produce enough
food to feed most of the world’s hungry, but getting the food to their
mouths is a problem that transcends science.

JOVENAL V. DELA CRUZ, JR. - PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY

MINDANAO
 13.All Work in Science is Reviewed to Keep the
Process Honest.
• Scientists are constantly reviewing each other's experiments to check up on each
other but unfortunately, while such a check and balance system would be useful,
the number of findings from one scientist checked by others is vanishingly small.
• Most scientists are simply too busy
• Research funds too limited for this type of review.
• The result of the lack of oversight has recently put science itself under suspicion.
• The enormous amount of original scientific research published, and the pressure
to produce new information rather than reproduce others' work dramatically
increases the chance that errors will go unnoticed.
• Scientists rarely report valid, but negative results and the failure to report what
did not work is a problem.

JOVENAL V. DELA CRUZ, JR. - PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY

MINDANAO