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Overview
Scientists can tell us a lot about the brain. They can tell us what regions of the brain are activated when we are speaking, reading or solving math problems. They have identified many of the genes that are turned on to help sculpt the developing brain. They have discovered a wide variety of different chemicals that nerve cells use to talk to each other. They have also made significant progress in understanding what goes wrong in Alzheimer’s disease, autism, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, addiction and other disorders.
Brain science is fascinating stuff, and one of the most exciting aspects is how scientists find out what they know. What kinds of methods and tools do they use to probe the complexities of the brain? What challenges do they face? When scientists find something out, how do they know if it is “right?” How do scientists interact with each other, especially when different teams of scientists are working on similar research questions?
This unit explores the process of science. It will give you a fresh perspective on how scientists figure stuff out, and give you a better idea of what it would be like to be doing scientific research. Although this unit draws examples mainly from neuroscience, the principles covered are useful in making sense of all areas of science.
Why This Science Matters
Everyday we are all confronted with a multitude of claims about products that are supposed to make us smarter or healthier or slow down the aging process. How do we know what is an advertising gimmick and what is based on science? Will that herbal supplement really help me to study more effectively for my math test? Do babies really get smarter if parents play Mozart for them? Could eating a lot of fruit and vegetables now really protect me from getting Alzheimer’s later in life?
In order to evaluate claims such as these, we need to know something about the evidence supporting them. Knowing something about the scientific process can make you more critical of the claims you encounter, and less likely to be swayed by baseless hype. Understanding how science progresses can also help you understand why scientists sometimes disagree, and why new results have the potential to initiate revolutions in scientific thinking. Textbooks and news articles bring us the results of scientific research, but discussions of how we know what we know are often left out, even though science in action is as exciting as it is mysterious.
Lesson developed by Sherry Seethaler, UCSD.
