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Science and Society

Basic and Applied Research
cience is the process of understanding looking for answers. Examples of applied Knowledge gained by basic research
Syour environment. It begins with mak- research include the creation and test- has sometimes resulted in the development
ing observations, creating explanations, and ing of a new, highly efficient fuel cell to of technological breakthroughs. On the
conducting research experiments. New in- run cars on hydrogen fuel, improving the other hand, other basic research—such as
formation and conclusions are based on the energy efficiency of the refrigerator, or learning how the solar system formed—has
results of the research. creating a faster computer chip from new no practical value other than satisfying our
There are two types of scientific re- materials. curiosity.
search: basic and applied. Basic research is Whether research is basic or applied
driven by a search for understanding and depends somewhat on the time frame. If a
QUESTIONS TO DISCUSS
may or may not have practical applications. practical use cannot be envisioned in the
Examples of basic research include seeking future, then it is definitely basic research. If
1. Should funding priorities go to basic
understandings about how the solar system a practical use is immediate, then the work
research, applied research, or both?
was created, finding new information about is definitely applied research. If a practical
matter by creating a new element in a re- use is developed some time in the future, 2. Should universities concentrate on
search lab, or mapping temperature varia- then the research is partly basic and partly basic research and industries concen-
tions on the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay. practical. For example, when the laser was trate on applied research, or should
Such basic research expands our knowledge invented, there was no practical use for it. both do both types of research?
but will not lead to practical results. It was called “an answer waiting for a ques- 3. Should research-funding organizations
Applied research has a goal of solving tion.” Today, the laser has many, many prac- specify which types of research should
some practical problem rather than just tical applications. be funded?

than water. Is this true? How can you find the answer to this this variable was responsible for the difference between the control
question? The time required to boil a can of soup might depend and experimental groups. In the case of the time to come to a boil,
on a number of things: the composition of the soup, how much you would find that soup indeed does boil faster than water alone.
soup is in the pan, what kind of pan is used, the nature of the If you doubt this, why not do the experiment yourself?
stove, the size of the burner, how high the temperature is set, en-
vironmental factors such as the humidity and temperature, and
more factors. It might seem that answering a simple question Accept Results?
about the time involved in boiling soup is an impossible task. To Scientists are not likely to accept the results of a single exper-
help unscramble such situations, scientists use what is known as iment, since it is possible that a random event that had nothing
a controlled experiment. A controlled experiment compares two to do with the experiment could have affected the results and
situations in which all the influencing factors are identical except caused people to think there was a cause-and-effect relationship
one. The situation used as the basis of comparison is called the when none existed. For example, the density of soup is greater
control group, and the other is called the experimental group. The than the density of water, and this might be the important factor.
single influencing factor that is allowed to be different in the ex- A way to overcome this difficulty would be to test a number
perimental group is called the experimental variable. of different kinds of soup with different densities. When there
The situation involving the time required to boil soup and is only one variable, many replicates (copies) of the same
water would have to be broken down into a number of simple experiment are conducted, and the consistency of the results
questions. Each question would provide the basis on which experi- determines how convincing the experiment is.
mentation would occur. Each experiment would provide informa- Furthermore, scientists often apply statistical tests to the
tion about a small part of the total process of heating liquids. For results to help decide in an impartial manner if the results ob-
example, in order to test the hypothesis that soup will begin to boil tained are valid (meaningful; fit with other knowledge), are re-
before water, an experiment could be performed in which soup is liable (give the same results repeatedly), and show cause-and-
brought to a boil (the experimental group), while water is brought effect or if they are just the result of random events.
to a boil in the control group. Every factor in the control group is
identical to the factors in the experimental group except the experi- Other Considerations
mental variable—the soup factor. After the experiment, the new As you can see from the discussion of the nature of science, a
data (facts) is gathered and analyzed. If there were no differences scientific approach to the world requires a certain way of think-
between the two groups, you could conclude that the soup variable ing. There is an insistence on ample supporting evidence by
evidently did not have a cause-and-effect relationship with the time numerous studies rather than easy acceptance of strongly stated
needed to come to a boil (i.e., soup was not responsible for the time opinions. Scientists must separate opinions from statements of
to boil). However, if there were a difference, it would be likely that fact. A scientist is a healthy skeptic.

1-15 CHAPTER 1 What Is Science? 15