Throughout elementary and intermediate school, the scientific process is portrayed to students as a linear process. Though what they have taught children is wrong on several occasions. Those teachers and textbooks tell us that there is one specific order of steps and events that is always followed when finding unknown information. However, scientists often have to go back to revise or change something within their hypothesis or experiment, which could happen several times within one study. Judah Folkman and Percy Julian, and many others have gone through the stages of trial and error within their investigations. Scientists can also go back and forth between each other on the same topic. Such as the idea and function of an atom. The scientific …show more content…
Percy Julian was in a “race” with Robert Robinson to figure out how to synthesize the plant alkaloid of physostigmine by using carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. These chemicals are also known as the four macromolecule building blocks. Robinson published his research first, making everyone think that he had figured it. But Julian had found a mistake with the melting point/temperature in Robinson's experiment. This resulted in Percy Julian being able to continue his studies. Julian believed that there was a much simpler process to create the compound. He tested that his compound was certainly physostigmine, proving Robert Robinson wrong. and be the first one to actually synthesize physostigmine.
Ideas can be thrown back and forth between scientists. For example, they could ask questions, make observations, and then share them. They could also cycle through that process until they figure out enough information. They then take all of that information into account while developing an experiment. A scientist may conduct an experiment and find new information, but not the solution. So they use that information in his/her variables and hypothesis to create a new experiment towards finding the solution, or maybe just new information …show more content…
He visualized them as very small billiard balls. In 1898, Joseph John Thomson concluded that unlike charges attract and like charges repel. Also that an electron’s mass was 2,000 times smaller than the mass of the hydrogen atom, which is the smallest known atom. Thomson proved that atoms are able to be divided, which supported Democritus’s notion. A step by step scientific method captures the main ideas of the concept. It teaches students to test ideas to solve a problem. But it is rare that an experiment will go smoothly without any failures. Scientists often repeat steps as they come across new information. Science circles around within itself as ideas are built