Scientific Discovery vs Scientific Observation
Scientific discovery though different from scientific observation is considered a result of scientific observation. If scientists didn’t spend time observing, then they couldn’t discover. While we all observe what is around us on a daily basis, the scientist observes more carefully, using a method known as the Scientific Method. Through the Scientific Method, scientists are able to learn new information and confirm or dispute other information gathered from other studies.
Scientists design experiments based on a hypothesis or theory that they have concerning a question or idea. The scientist must do a little background research to see if their question has been answered previously and to what degree. Once they have done this, they can develop a hypothesis or a question which they wish to answer. Once they construct their hypothesis, they can begin to design an experiment with which to collect their data.
During the experimental stage, the scientist will test their hypothesis while collecting data. It is important to use a control with your experiment so that you know the information you are collecting is valid. Only one factor can be changed in your experiment while all of your other conditions must remain the same.
Once your experiment is completed, you can then analyze your data and see if your hypothesis is true or false. If a scientist finds that his/her initial hypothesis is false, they will then need to start again from the beginning and create a new hypothesis to test. If there hypothesis is proven to be true than reproducibility becomes important.
Scientific discovery on the other hand, is a newly found discovery made by scientists who have used the scientific method in order to research something. When the scientist has answered his/her hypothesis in a positive way and has gotten reproducible results, then these results have to be duplicated with more testing to make sure that errors were not made the first time. Once repeated experiments have been consistently reproduced both by the original scientist and the results are thought to be accurate the information can be published. Once the results from the first scientific study are published, other scientists can do their own experimentation based on the original results. This enables all of the original scientists work to be considered a scientific discovery.
This is an overview of the differences between scientific discovery and scientific observation. As you can see here it is impossible to have one without the other.
