MidTerms for Biology 2011 Laura

NOUN:

The science of life and of living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution. It includes botany and zoology and all their subdivisions.
The life processes or characteristic phenomena of a group or category of living organisms: the biology of viruses.
The plant and animal life of a specific

The branch of a science or art consisting of its explanatory statements, accepted principles, and methods of analysis, as opposed to practice: a fine musician who had never studied theory.

NOUN:
pl. hy·poth·e·ses
A tentative explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation.
Something taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation; an assumption.
The antecedent of a conditional statement.

(1) An established principle thought to be universal and invariable.

(2) A scientific generalization based on empirical observations of physical behavior.

any observation that has been repeatedly confirmed and accepted as true; any scientific observation that has not been refuted

Example:
The structure of a cell membrane is considered a scientific fact.

an act or instance of viewing or noting a fact or occurrence for some scientific or other special purpose

the act or process of inferring.

2.
something that is inferred: to make rash inferences.

3.
Logic .
a.
the process of deriving the strict logical consequences of assumed premises.

b.
the process of arriving at some conclusion that, though it is not logically derivable from the assumed premises, possesses some degree of probability relative to the premises.

c.
a proposition reached by a process of inference.

the variable that is varied or manipulated by the researcher

the response that is measured.

standard of comparison for checking or verifying the results of an experiment. In an experiment to test the effectiveness of a new drug, for example, one group of subjects (the control group) receives an inactive substance or placebo , while a comparison group receives the drug being tested.