After reading Chapter 2 in the textbook and the article "Understanding Science: How Science Works" and watching the "The Origins of Species: The Making of a Theory" video, reflect on the nature of science and how the study of evolution fits within a scientific framework. In your reflection try to answer the following questions in about 200 to 300 words.
1.
How is science different than non-science? To me science lies on validating an idea or theory through proof and evidence that someone typically garners from continual experimentation and analysis of each trial of results. On the contrary non-science tends to contradict the previously mentioned methods it the way that
it really is just based off of a prediction from previous knowledge of some sort. 2.
Describe how Darwin and Wallace acted scientifically in their development of the theory of natural selection.
These men acted scientifically with the way that they experimented and observed their results in their studies. They collected an abundance of specimens to sample from, in which they could conclude that species are often faced with different casualties which is crucial to understanding how they inherently change over time which is linked to their theory of natural selection. This theory explains how some species manage to persist while other do not and that many of the ones that are living can be traced back to fossil remains and can be illustrated in a family tree to further support the idea of evolution as well.
3.
Many people who do not agree with the idea of evolution argue that it is "just" a theory, when they mean that it is just a guess or a hunch. How does natural selection fit the definition of a scientific theory and does that mean it is just a guess or a hunch?
Even if people disprove of the idea of evolution and do not believe it to be theory, they should keep in mind that a theory is something that already has “robust support” as well as “genetic and fossil evidence” and has not been invalidated and is still being continually experimented with. Natural selection fits with the definition of a scientific theory through the way in which both Darwin and Wallace had brought up their own set of fossil, anatomical and geographical evidence to support this theory. Natural selection cannot just be a hunch or a guess when there is clear evidence that proves it to be valid. Darwin originally recognized the fossils of creatures that he found similar but also differentiated from the species he was examining. He figured that they even if they are different today, the living species managed to originate from these fossils somehow. While when Wallace when he encountered the species in the archipelago, he also noticed that these species also had to originate from older specimens which further supported the variation of these species.
