On Scientific Approaches to Realities

 On Scientific Approaches to Realities

Janpha Thadphoothon

Science has been with us for many centuries. It is an invention, an important one, actually. Will we rely on it for the next one thousand years? No one really knows. Let me pause and invite myself and you, my reader to think a little bit deeper on this. When we say, our practice, e.g. research study, is scientific, what we mean is that is it verifiable and duplicable - you can do it again and it can withstand scrutiny.

One thing is this: science does not prove anything to be right. It simply says that such and such is not right (wrong). For example, if you asked: Are UFOs real? Science won't be able to give us this answer. It can only tell us that the evidence to substantiate the claim that UFOs are real is not enough. In short, there is insufficient evidence to prove that it is the case. 

Science can tell us in terms of likelihood. It is more likely that .... and it is less likely to be the case.

Scientists rely on testing and experimenting, and one of the testing methods is the testing of hypotheses or making predictions. You need to express your research hypothesis as a null and alternative hypothesis, to start with. A hypothesis is an intellectual guess. We guess with some data and information, including previous knowledge. For example, you can guess that a person is working on a research project when he is seen working on a notebook computer. The guess may be correct. It may well be incorrect. The person may not be working on his or her research project. He or she may simply surf the Internet or relax by chatting with friends.

What is the null hypothesis? l hypothesis is essentially the "devil's advocate" position. That is, it assumes that whatever you are trying to prove did not happen (hint: it usually states that something equals zero).

A = 0 He is not doing his research. (That the person is doing his research is not true.)

A ≠ 0 The null hypothesis is rejected. (That the person is doing his research is not true is rejected)

There is no sufficient, hitherto, data or evidence to prove that the person is working on his research.