Development of the Scientific Method
How Did Scientific Knowledge Develop?
All scientific discoveries and advancements can be traced back to the need to improve our quality of life and our knowledge of things that existed on the Earth (and in our universe). These are some of the knowledge pieces that shaped the modern way of scientific thinking - hover over the pins on the world map to learn more!
Ancient Babylon (~2000 BCE)
With ties to religion, Babylonians became more interested in studying the heavens. Along with the development of better sighting instruments, they transitioned from simply observing the skies and the stars to solving astronomical patterns. They were able to determine the exact days when a new moon would be visible by first recording their observations and then solving the relationship between different independent variables (e.g., relative distance between the Sun and the Moon or the season of the year to name a few) that affected when a new moon would appear [2].
(Google Earth, 2024)
Many Discoveries Were Found Due to Violation of Human Ethics...
In the earlier days of science and even up to modern day, serious breaches of ethical borders have sporadically occurred.
During the era of European colonization, the development of various scientific advancements stemmed from ambitious colonialists. For example,
improvements made to steamboats came from the need to scavenge through the complex river network in Africa.
Advancements in weapon-making also resulted from the desire to conquer more African land [4].
Basalla’s theory of scientific diffusion is famous for its depiction of the spread of science from a Western point of view. He claimed that there were three stages. First, Western views of science spread to other nations (through colonization). Then, there was a period where people utilized resources from the colonies to generate scientific knowledge. In stage three, there was a struggle for the colonized countries to develop their own scientific culture. In essence, Western culture at that time did not give an opportunity for Indigenous science to make its impact. They were simply imposing their scientific perspectives on Indigenous people and exploiting their resources for scientific advancements [4].
The second real-life example that we will be exploring today is the story of Henrietta Lacks.
“[Henrietta Lacks] died in 1951, aged 31, of an aggressive cervical cancer. Months earlier, doctors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, had taken samples of her cancerous cells while diagnosing and treating the disease. They gave some of that tissue to a researcher without Lacks’s knowledge or consent. In the laboratory, her cells turned out to have an extraordinary capacity to survive and reproduce; they were, in essence, immortal. The researcher shared them widely with other scientists, and they became a workhorse of biological research. Today, work done with HeLa cells underpins much of modern medicine; they have been involved in key discoveries in many fields, including cancer, immunology and infectious disease. One of their most recent applications has been in research for vaccines against COVID-19.” [5]
You may have noticed that there are two sides to these stories. The knowledgeable people (i.e., colonialists, researchers) were able to benefit and create even more knowledge at the expense of another's' loss. Learning their lesson from these historical and more recent events, the scientific community is working to solidify ethical guidelines that regulate how research is conducted.
About Us
Science for Everyone is a Canadian Nonprofit Organization that provides educational resources to help raise the level of scientific literacy in the general population.