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From Research to Manuscript: A Guide to Scientific Writing

By (author) Michael Jay Katz

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Observations Plus Recipes It has been said that science is the orderly collection of facts about the natural world. Scientists, however, are wary of using the word â€˜fact. â€™ â€˜Factâ€™ has the feeling of absoluteness and universality, whereas scientific observations are neither ab- lute nor universal. For example, â€˜children have 20 deciduous [baby] teethâ€™ is an observation about the real world, but scientists would not call it a fact. Some children have fewer deciduous teeth, and some have more. Even those children who have exactly 20 deciduous teeth use the full set during only a part of their childhood. When they are babies and t- dlers, children have less than 20 visible teeth, and as they grow older, children begin to loose their deciduous teeth, which are then replaced by permanent teeth. â€˜Children have 20 deciduous [baby] teethâ€™ is not even a complete scientific sta- ment. For one thing, the statement â€˜children have 20 deciduous teethâ€™ does not tell us what we mean by â€˜teeth. â€™ When we say â€œteeth,â€ do we mean only those that can seen be with the unaided eye, or do we also include the hidden, unerupted teeth? An observation such as â€˜children have 20 deciduous teethâ€™ is not a fact, and, by itself, it is not acceptable as a scientific statement until its terms are explained: scientifically, â€˜children have 20 deciduous teethâ€™ must be accompanied by definitions and qualifiers.