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Science/Environment Science - What is hypothesis, what is theory, what is fact, what is the difference?
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Mofra
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Science - Wikipedia
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Ned_Flanders
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doesnt a dictionary kill the need for this thread?
BruceFromBalnarring
Disproven/ superseded theories:
Take notice of what they all have in common, once youve read through them all - tell me what they have in common……
Disproven/ superseded theories:
Take notice of what they all have in common, once youve read through them all - tell me what they have in common……
BiologyEdit
- Spontaneous generation – a principle regarding the spontaneous generation of complex life from inanimate matter, which held that this process was a commonplace and everyday occurrence, as distinguished from univocal generation, or reproduction from parent(s). Falsified by an experiment by Louis Pasteur: where apparently spontaneous generation of microorganisms occurred, it did not happen on repeating the process without access to unfiltered air; on then opening the apparatus to the atmosphere, bacterial growth started.
- Transmutation of species, Lamarckism, inheritance of acquired characteristics, Lysenkoism – first theories of evolution. Not supported by experiment, and rendered obsolete by Darwinian evolutionand Mendelian genetics, combined in the modern synthesis, though some elements of Lamarckian evolution are coming back in the area of epigenetics (on a very limited scale).
- Vitalism – the theory that living things are alive because of some "vital force" independent of matter, as opposed to because of some appropriate assembly of matter. It was gradually discredited by the rise of organic chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology, fields that failed to discover any "vital force". Friedrich Wöhler's synthesis of urea from ammonium cyanate was only one step in a long road, not a great refutation.
- Maternal impression – the theory that the mother's thoughts created birth defects. No experimental support (a notion rather than a theory), and rendered obsolete by genetic theory (see also fetal origins of adult disease, genomic imprinting)
- Preformationism – the theory that all organisms have existed since the beginning of life, and that gametes contain a miniature but complete preformed individual, in the case of humans, a homunculus. No support when microscopy became available. Rendered obsolete by cytology, discovery of DNA, and atomic theory.
- Recapitulation theory – the theory that "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny".[4] See Baer's laws of embryology.
- Telegony – the theory that an offspring can inherit characteristics from a previous mate of its mother's as well as its actual parents, often associated with racism.
- Out of Asia theory of human origin – The majority view is of a recent African origin of modern humans, although a multiregional origin of modern humans hypothesis has much support (which incorporates past evidence of Asian origins)
- Scientific racism – the theory that humanity consists of physically discrete superior or inferior races. Rendered obsolete by Human evolutionary genetics and modern anthropology.[5]
- Mendelian genetics, classical genetics, Boveri–Sutton chromosome theory – first genetic theories. Not invalidated as such, but subsumed into molecular genetics.
- Germ line theory, explained immunoglobulin diversity by proposing that each antibody was encoded in a separate germline gene.[6][7]
ChemistryEdit
- Caloric theory – the theory that a self-repelling fluid called "caloric" was the substance of heat. Rendered obsolete by the mechanical theory of heat.
- Classical elements – All matter was once thought composed of various combinations of classical elements (most famously air, earth, fire, and water). Antoine Lavoisier finally refuted this in his 1789 publication, Elements of Chemistry, which contained the first modern list of chemical elements.
- Electrochemical dualism - the theory that all molecules are salts composed of basic and acidic oxides
- Phlogiston theory – The theory that combustible goods contain a substance called "phlogiston" that entered air during combustion. Replaced by Lavoisier's work on oxidation
- Point 2 of Dalton's Atomic Theorywas rendered obsolete by discovery of isotopes, and point 3 by discovery of subatomic particles and nuclear reactions.
- Radical theory - the theory that organic compounds exist as combinations of radicals that can be exchanged in chemical reactions just as chemical elements can be interchanged in inorganic compounds
- Vitalism – See section on biology.
- Nascent state refers to the form of a chemical element (or sometimes compound) in the instance of their liberation or formation. Often encountered are atomic oxygen(Onasc) and nascent hydrogen(Hnasc), and chlorine (Clnasc) or bromine (Brnasc).[8]
- Polywater, a hypothesized polymer form of water, the properties of which actually arose from contaminants such as sweat
PhysicsEdit
- Emission theory of vision – the belief that vision is caused by rays emanating from the eyes was superseded by the intro-missionapproach and more complex theories of vision
- Aristotelian physics – superseded by Newtonian physics
- Ptolemy's law of refraction, replaced by Snell's law
- Luminiferous aether – failed to be detected by the sufficiently sensitive Michelson–Morley experiment, made obsolete by Einstein's work.
- Caloric theory – Lavoisier's successor to phlogiston, discredited by Rumford's and Joule's work
- Contact tension – a theory on the source of electricity
- Vis viva – Gottfried Leibniz's elementary and limited early formulation of the principle of conservation of energy
- "Purely electrostatic" theories of the generation of voltage differences.
- Emitter theory – another now-obsolete theory of light propagation
- Balance of nature – superseded by catastrophe theory and chaos theory
- Progression of atomic theory
- Democritus, the originator of atomic theory, held that everything is composed of atoms that are indestructible. His claim that atoms are indestructible is not the reason it is superseded—as it was later scientists who identified the concept of atoms with particles, which later science showed are destructible. Democritus' theory is superseded because of his position that several kinds of atoms explain pure materials like water or iron, and characteristics that science now identifies with molecules rather than with indestructible primary particles. Democritus also held that between atoms, an empty space of a different nature than atoms allowed atoms to move. This view on space and matter persisted until Einstein described spacetime as being relative and connected to matter.
- John Dalton's model of the atom, which held that atoms are indivisible and indestructible (superseded by nuclear physics) and that all atoms of a given element are identical in mass (superseded by discovery of atomic isotopes).[9]
- Plum pudding model of the atom—assuming the protons and electrons were mixed together in a single mass
- Rutherford model of the atom with an impenetrable nucleus orbited by electrons
- Bohr model with quantized orbits
- Electron cloud model following the development of quantum mechanics in 1925 and the eventual atomic orbital models derived from the quantum mechanical solution to the hydrogen atom
- All of classical physics, including Newtonian physics, superseded by relativistic physics and quantum physics. However, classical physics is a limiting case of the latter two theories, and it is often a very good approximation.
Astronomy and cosmologyEdit
- Ptolemaic system – replaced by Nicolaus Copernicus' heliocentric model.
- Geocentric universe – made obsolete by Copernicus
- Heliocentric universe – made obsolete by discovery of the structure of the Milky Way and the redshift of most galaxies. Heliocentrism only applies to the selected Solar System, and only approximately, since the Sun's center is not at the Solar System's center of mass.
- Copernican system – made obsolete by Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton
- Newtonian gravity – superseded by general relativity, to which it is a good approximation unless typical speeds approach that of light in a vacuum (c). The anomalous perihelion precession of Mercury was the first observational evidence that Newtonian gravity was not totally accurate.
- Luminiferous aether theory
- Steady state theory, a model developed by Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, and Fred Hoylewhereby the expanding universewas in a steady state, and had no beginning. It was a competitor of the Big Bang model until evidence supporting the Big Bang and falsifying the steady state was found.
Geography and climateEdit
- Buenaventura River
- Flat Earth theory. On length scales much smaller than the radius of the Earth, a flat map projectiongives a quite accurate and practically useful approximation to true distances and sizes, but departures from flatness become increasingly significant over larger distances.
- Terra Australis
- Hollow Earth theory
- The Open Polar Sea, an ice-free sea once supposed to surround the North Pole
- Rain follows the plow – the theory that human settlement increases rainfall in arid regions (only true to the extent that crop fields evapotranspirate more than barren wilderness)
- Island of California – the theory that California was not part of mainland North America but rather a large island
- Inland sea of Australia[10][11]
- Pre-Modern Environmental determinism (as explanations for moral behavior, as opposed to modern theories such as factor endowments, state formation, and theories of the social effects of global warming)
- Climatic determinism
- Topographic determinism
- Moral geography
- Cultural Acclimatization
- Global cooling
- Drainage divides as always being made up by hills and mountains.
GeologyEdit
- Abiogenic petroleum origin
- Catastrophism was largely replaced by uniformitarianism and neocatastrophism
- Cryptoexplosion craters, now discarded in favour of impact craters and ordinary volcanism.
- Flood geology replaced by modern geology and stratigraphy
- Neptunism replaced by plutonismand volcanism
- Granitization, a discredited alternative to a magmatic origin of granites
- Monoglaciation
- Oscillation theory of land-level rise and subsidence during deglaciation
- The following were superseded by plate tectonics:
- Elevation crater theory
- Expanding Earth theory(superseded by subduction)
- Contracting Earth
- Geosyncline theory
- Haarman's Oscillation theory
- Various lost landmassesincluding Lemuria
PsychologyEdit
- Pure behaviorist explanations for language acquisition in infancy, falsified by the study of cognitive adaptations for language.[12]
- Psychomotor patterning, a pseudoscientific approach to the treatment of intellectual disabilities, brain injury, learning disabilities, and other cognitivediseases.[13]
MedicineEdit
- Theory of the four bodily humours(see also Four temperaments)
- Heroic medicine – a therapeutic method derived from the belief in bodily humour imbalances as the cause of ailments.
- Miasma theory of disease – the theory that diseases are caused by "bad air". No experimental support, and rendered obsolete by the germ theory of disease.
- Phrenology – a theory of highly localised brain function popular in 19th century medicine.
- Homeopathy – a theory according to which a disease can be cured by infinitesimal doses of the substance that caused it
- Eclectic medicine – Transformed into alternative medicine, and is no longer considered a scientific theory
- Physiognomy, related to phrenology, held that inner character was strongly correlated with physical appearance
- Tooth worm, an erroneous theory of the cause of dental caries, periodontitis, and toothaches
In my limited understanding, a fact, if you want to call it that as something that is measurable and empirically observed, can be used in either a hypothesis or a theory. But it's a scientific law that is at the top if the truth hierarchy, if you will.
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No.
As the modern scientific method developed all the half baked “theories” were replaced. A long long time ago.
Theories should be renamed imho. It makes it sound like a half thought out idea - nowadays nothing becomes a scientific law any more. The more we know the more we know we dont know.
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She’s no orator, but she makes a good point.
Nice Swan Brother
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Can anyone defend (and its mainly on twitter) those suggesting that Australia's inaction on climate change has been a measurable contributory factor to the devastating bushfires and floods over the past few years?
Not looking at projections and modelling for such future events, and taking into account our contribution to world emissions (albeit too high per capita) what could we have done and when, as a single emitter to have made a material difference?
Good time to start? sure, but there are a lot of people directly blaming an inaction on climate change from the current government for these disasters.
Happy to accept a continuation of the status quo from the worlds emitters may contribute to similar or more severe weather patterns in the future, and that more could have been done by all emitters to prevent the current, but to suggest that current Australian climate policy and our emissions are causing/materially contributing to these events is not science.
Not looking at projections and modelling for such future events, and taking into account our contribution to world emissions (albeit too high per capita) what could we have done and when, as a single emitter to have made a material difference?
Good time to start? sure, but there are a lot of people directly blaming an inaction on climate change from the current government for these disasters.
Happy to accept a continuation of the status quo from the worlds emitters may contribute to similar or more severe weather patterns in the future, and that more could have been done by all emitters to prevent the current, but to suggest that current Australian climate policy and our emissions are causing/materially contributing to these events is not science.
Gralin
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Can I point to how our actions materially affect climate change?
Infographic: The World's Biggest Coal Exporters
This chart shows the biggest exporters of coal in the world in 2019.
www.statista.com
Yes, yes I can
Nice Swan Brother
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Looks to me like he’s questioning it, not denying it.
Nice Swan Brother
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Did you read my post
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Your infographic said nothing of Australia’s link to floods and or bushfires.
Gralin
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Hey Bruce do you believe in man made climate change?
If yes do you believe Australia being one of the worlds largest exporters of coal has a large impact on climate change?
If no why not?
If you believe in climate change and our role in it do you maybe think the bushfires and floods can be linked back to that?
If not why not?
Because I believe from everything that I've read it's pretty well proven at this point that
Man made climate change is real
When you include the coal we export we are one of the worlds worst polluters
Climate change leads to more extreme weather events be that drought or heat or rain or cold
That extreme weather has a direct impact on the severity and frequency of bushfires and floods in Australia
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I’m agnostic on the basic theory.
I note various scientists who do subscribe to the theory have pointed out multiple times that weather events attributed to anthropogenic climate change are natural and regular occurrences and such attribution is damaging their efforts to properly explain and act to prevent the long term consequences of the theory.
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