Using the Scientific Method: from fear to facts

One chance in eight

Imagine being born two hundred years ago. The text says you had one chance in eight of reaching your first birthday. Living past thirty made you lucky. Today a person can expect to live almost seventy years.

What changed? Not luck. The authors credit one habit of thinking: the scientific method, which asks for causes and facts instead of guesses and fears.

Authors: Darrel Barnard and Lon Edwards. Main idea: the scientific method has improved living conditions (disease, sanitation, food) and changed people themselves, making them less fearful, more critical and more open-minded.

Key terms

Scientific method

Solving problems by finding causes and testing ideas against facts: the causes of disease and its prevention, the cause of the spread of typhoid and cholera, how to preserve food.

Sanitation

Once science showed that dirt spreads typhoid, cholera and dysentery, cities paved and cleaned streets, piped sewage away and brought in clean water.

Superstition

Feelings of fear about signs of good or bad luck: wearing a charm, dreading black cats, broken mirrors or the number 13, blaming disease on evil spirits.

Open-mindedness

Willingness to look for new truths instead of assuming old ideas are always true. People who have seen old ideas overturned are slow to call any conclusion final.

Short questions with model answers

1. Q1. How has the scientific method helped us in our fight against disease?

   • Then: 7 of 8 babies died; past 30 was fortunate
   • Method: find the causes of disease and prevent them
   • Now: hospitals, protection, almost seventy years

   Two hundred years ago about seven of every eight babies died before their first birthday, and a person who lived past thirty was fortunate. By using the scientific method to find the causes of disease and ways to prevent it, we now protect children against smallpox, diphtheria and typhoid. A person can expect to live almost seventy years.

2. Q2. We are now generally less fearful than our ancestors. What were our ancestors afraid of?

   • Signs of good or bad luck: charms, omens
   • Black cats, broken mirrors, the number 13, evil spirits

   Our ancestors feared signs of bad luck. They wore charms and felt uneasy without them, and they feared black cats, broken mirrors and the number 13. Many believed that diseases were caused by evil spirits, and astrology and fortune-telling influenced many lives.

3. Q3. How has the scientific method enabled us to get over the old fears?

   • It showed there is no sound basis for superstitions
   • Every happening has a good natural reason
   • Ideas must be supported by facts; open-mindedness

   The scientific method has shown that superstitions have no sound basis and that there is always a good natural reason for what happens. It has taught us that an idea is not true just because it has been believed for a long time; it must be supported by facts. This has made people open-minded and less fearful.

Common mistakes

• ✗ Writing that one baby in eight died before its first birthday.

  ✓ It is the other way round: one chance in eight of living, so seven out of eight died, according to the text.

• ✗ Saying the sanitation comparison is with two hundred years ago.

  ✓ Disease: two hundred years ago. Sanitation and food: one hundred years (a century) ago.

• ✗ Defining open-mindedness as believing whatever you hear.

  ✓ It means being willing to look for new truths, while still asking that ideas be supported by facts.

MCQs

1. 1. Two hundred years ago, a baby's chance of living to be one year old was about:

   1. (a) one in two
   2. (b) one in four
   3. (c) one in eight
   4. (d) seven in eight
   Show answer

   (c) “About one chance in eight of living to be one year old.”

2. 2. Today a person can expect to live almost:

   1. (a) thirty years
   2. (b) fifty years
   3. (c) seventy years
   4. (d) a hundred years
   Show answer

   (c) Almost seventy years: more than thirty years have been added.

3. 3. Los Angeles brings its water from:

   1. (a) wells in the city
   2. (b) the Colorado River, 544 km away
   3. (c) the Pacific Ocean
   4. (d) rainwater tanks
   Show answer

   (b) Through a pipeline, or aqueduct, from the Colorado River 544 km away: a thousand million litres daily.

4. 4. Which method of preserving food does the text describe as modern and practical?

   1. (a) salting in winter
   2. (b) dehydration
   3. (c) eating it soon after catching
   4. (d) keeping it in wells
   Show answer

   (b) Dehydration, the removal of water from milk, eggs, potatoes and apples, has proved a practical method.

5. 5. In the text, “open-mindedness” means:

   1. (a) believing old ideas forever
   2. (b) willingness to accept new ideas
   3. (c) fear of the unknown
   4. (d) belief in lucky signs
   Show answer

   (b) The glossary: willingness to accept new ideas, a liberal outlook.

Quick revision

• The scientific method brought better control of disease, better sanitation and more and better food.
• It changed people too: fewer superstitions, ideas tested against facts, and more open minds.
• Key numbers: one chance in eight (then), almost seventy years (now), 544 km and a thousand million litres (Los Angeles).