2.2: Investigate the Natural World

Science starts with curiosity. To see the world as scientists do requires a childlike wonder to see and hear and smell and touch and taste the world in high definition. In the lab or in the field, a scientist’s senses are on alert. Every detail matters. Like the Bene Gesserit of the 1965 novel Dune—written by Frank Herbert (1920–1986) and considered the best-selling science fiction novel of all time—scientists are “trained in the minutiae of observation.” Only through repeated observations of the same organism, behavior, event, or occurrence can scientists establish a set of facts upon which experiments or further observations can be based.

Phenomena that can be observed and measured consistently and repeatedly lend themselves to scientific inquiry, the multifaceted process of investigating the natural world. Things that cannot be observed or measured, or that occur once or rarely, do not lend themselves to scientific inquiry. Such phenomena fall outside the domain of science. Scientific inquiry encompasses a diverse set of tools and approaches. To the extent that the researchers carrying out the inquiry report their methods and results truthfully, and as long as they remain willing to modify their conclusions based on their results, then these efforts may be considered legitimate science.

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