Some people with psychic abilities predict the future. And I wrote about those psychic abilities yesterday. I also mentioned that those capacities have not been scientifically proven.
Could I be a psychic? Well. Look at me. Today I’m predicting the future. Let’s see… I see myself writing about scientific proof today.
It is a topic that I love. Science. Maybe because it is easy for all of us to do. Science simply consists of observing the world by watching, listening, and recording. Science is curiosity and thoughtful action about the world and how it behaves.
Anyone can think like a scientist.
But here is how the rest of it works.
We all can have an idea about how nature works. Then, we may think our idea is correct because “it seems right” or “it makes sense.” For instance. We might say, “That leaf just fell from the tree. It must have happened because the stems break when it gets cloudy.”
That’s a hypothesis.
But for a scientist, this is not enough. A scientist will test the idea in the real world.
So for the scientist, they ask. “Is my hypothesis correct?”
Then the scientist observes. They watch. And they record data. They find out, perhaps, that leaves fall off trees when it is sunny. Or during the night without a cloud in the sky. So they have proven the hypothesis is wrong and begin looking for other things that might cause leaves to fall from trees.
Eventually, after much study, they come to find this:
In the Spring, a layer of cells is formed where a leaf grows out from a branch. (For the record, it is called the “abscission” layer). It is a happy time for the tree. It is the growing season. And during that time, the tree hormones and chemicals are reasonably steady. Happy leaf time. This new layer of cells allows energy from the leaves to be passed into the branch and trunk to be stored.
But then autumn rolls around with its cooler temperatures and shorter days. The amount of sun is greatly reduced. As such, the production of a hormone called “auxin” slows down. And that abscission layer that came on in the Spring? Well, the hormone auxin puts a strain on that layer. And that causes the bond between the leaf and the branch to weaken. Eventually, the leaf can’t hold on to the tree branch any longer, so the first good autumn wind will blow the leaf away.
If an idea or hypothesis correctly predicts how something will behave, we call it a theory.
If an idea explains all the facts or evidence we have found, we call it a theory.
Here’s one more thing.
In general, a scientific law is the description of an observed phenomenon. That’s all. A scientific law doesn’t explain why the phenomenon exists or what causes it. The explanation for a phenomenon is called a theory. It is a misconception that theories turn into laws with enough research.
And finally. Our planet is home to around 8.7 million different species.
One species, humans, has nearly 8 billion members.
Another species, ants, has about 20 quadrillion members.
That’s only 2 of the 8.7 million different species.
There are a whole lot of us here. A whole big lot of us.
And if that wasn’t enough? The known Universe is made up of 50,000,000,000 galaxies.
So we better keep observing and learning, if we know what’s good for us.
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“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.”
– Carl Sagan
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“In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.”
– Galileo Galilei
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“There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.”
– Hippocrates
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The great observation. Any one can. If they choose.
