# kb

id: scientific-control-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_control-3.md
category: reference
title: Scientific control
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_control
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:17:22.864522+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-control-20260505-0
summary:
Blinding is the practice of withholding information that may bias an experiment. For example, participants may not know who received an active treatment and who received a placebo. If this information were to become available to trial participants, patients could receive a larger placebo effect, researchers could influence the experiment to meet their expectations (the observer effect), and evaluators could be subject to confirmation bias. A blind can be imposed on any participant of an experiment, including subjects, researchers, technicians, data analysts, and evaluators. In some cases, sham surgery may be necessary to achieve blinding. During the course of an experiment, a participant becomes unblinded if they deduce or otherwise obtain information that has been masked to them. Unblinding that occurs before the conclusion of a study is a source of experimental error, as the bias that was eliminated by blinding is re-introduced. Unblinding is common in blind experiments and must be measured and reported. Meta-research has revealed high levels of unblinding in pharmacological trials. In particular, antidepressant trials are poorly blinded. Reporting guidelines recommend that all studies assess and report unblinding. In practice, very few studies assess unblinding. Blinding is an important tool of the scientific method, and is


id: scientific-dissent-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_dissent-0.md
category: reference
title: Scientific dissent
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_dissent
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:17:24.085084+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-dissent-20260505-0
summary:
Scientific dissent is dissent from scientific consensus. Disagreements can be useful for finding problems in underlying assumptions, methodologies, and reasoning, as well as for generating and testing new ways of tackling the unknown. In modern times, with the increased role of science on the society and the politicization of science, a new aspect gained prominence: effects of scientific dissent on public policies. Scientific dissent is distinct from denialism, which is a deliberate rejection of scientific consensus usually for commercial or ideological reasons. == Dissent as part of scientific inquiry == Miriam Solomon in her book Social Empiricism argues that scientific dissent is the normal state of scientific inquiry, rather than a conflict that needs resolution. She argues that disagreements between individual scientists about the proper direction of research are not cause for concern, because scientific rationality must be assessed at the level of the scientific community. As long as all theories being pursued yield some unique empirical successes, Solomon argues that their pursuit is worthwhile and consistent with the common view that science aims at truth. In Solomon's view, competing scientific theories can even be inconsistent with one another while each containing some degree of truth. Empirical evidence may not


id: scientific-enterprise-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_enterprise-0.md
category: reference
title: Scientific enterprise
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_enterprise
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:17:25.275542+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-enterprise-20260505-0
summary:
A scientific enterprise is a science-based project developed by, or in cooperation with, a private entrepreneur. For example, in the Age of Exploration, leaders like Henry the Navigator founded schools of navigation, from which stemmed voyages of exploration. == Examples of enterprising scientific organizations == Each organization listed below has the ability to conduct scientific research on an extended basis, involving multiple researchers over an extended time. Generally, the research is funded not only for the science itself, but for some application which shows promise for the enterprise. But the researchers, if left to their own choices, will tend to follow their research interest, which is essential for the long-term health of their chosen field. Note that a successful scientific enterprise is not equivalent to a successful high-tech enterprise or to a successful business enterprise, but that they form an ecology, a food chain. The Max Planck Institute, which supports fundamental research in the natural, life and social sciences, the arts and humanities The RAND Corporation, founded as a research corporation. Did groundbreaking work in the field of artificial intelligence The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, founded by Theodore von Kármán Bell Laboratories, renowned for the quality of its scientific work and


id: scientific-evidence-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_evidence-0.md
category: reference
title: Scientific evidence
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_evidence
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:17:26.492214+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-evidence-20260505-0
summary:
Scientific evidence is evidence that serves to either support or counter a scientific theory or hypothesis, although scientists also use evidence in other ways, such as when applying theories to practical problems. Such evidence is expected to be empirical evidence and interpretable in accordance with the scientific method. Standards for scientific evidence vary according to the field of inquiry, but the strength of scientific evidence is generally based on the results of statistical analysis and the strength of scientific controls. == Principles of inference == A person's assumptions or beliefs about the relationship between observations and a hypothesis will affect whether that person takes the observations as evidence. These assumptions or beliefs will also affect how a person utilizes the observations as evidence. For example, the Earth's apparent lack of motion may be taken as evidence for a geocentric cosmology. However, after sufficient evidence is presented for heliocentric cosmology and the apparent lack of motion is explained, the initial observation is strongly discounted as evidence. When rational observers have different background beliefs, they may draw different conclusions from the same scientific evidence. For example, Priestley, working with phlogiston theory, explained his observations about the decomposition of mercuric oxide using phlogiston.


id: scientific-evidence-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_evidence-1.md
category: reference
title: Scientific evidence
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_evidence
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:17:26.492214+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-evidence-20260505-0
summary:
== Philosophical versus scientific views == In the 20th century, many philosophers investigated the logical relationship between evidence statements and hypotheses, whereas scientists tended to focus on how the data used for statistical inference are generated. But according to philosopher Deborah Mayo, by the end of the 20th century philosophers had come to understand that "there are key features of scientific practice that are overlooked or misdescribed by all such logical accounts of evidence, whether hypothetico-deductive, Bayesian, or instantiationist". There were a variety of 20th-century philosophical approaches to decide whether an observation may be considered evidence; many of these focused on the relationship between the evidence and the hypothesis. In the 1950s, Rudolf Carnap recommended distinguishing such approaches into three categories: classificatory (whether the evidence confirms the hypothesis), comparative (whether the evidence supports a first hypothesis more than an alternative hypothesis) or quantitative (the degree to which the evidence supports a hypothesis). A 1983 anthology edited by Peter Achinstein provided a concise presentation by prominent philosophers on scientific evidence, including Carl Hempel (on the logic of confirmation), R. B. Braithwaite (on the structure of a scientific system), Norwood Russell Hanson (on the logic of discovery), Nelson Goodman (of grue fame,


id: scientific-formalism-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_formalism-0.md
category: reference
title: Scientific formalism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_formalism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:17:27.673283+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-formalism-20260505-0
summary:
Scientific formalism is a family of approaches to the presentation of science. It is viewed as an important part of the scientific method, especially in the physical sciences. == Levels of formalism == There are multiple levels of scientific formalism possible. At the lowest level, scientific formalism deals with the symbolic manner in which the information is presented. To achieve formalism in a scientific theory at this level, one starts with a well defined set of axioms, and from this follows a formal system. However, at a higher level, scientific formalism also involves consideration of the axioms themselves. These can be viewed as questions of ontology. For example, one can, at the lower level of formalism, define a property called 'existence'. However, at the higher level, the question of whether an electron exists in the same sense that a bacterium exists still needs to be resolved. Some actual formal theories on facts have been proposed. == In modern physics == The scientific climate of the twentieth century revived these questions. From about the time of Isaac Newton to that of James Clerk Maxwell they had been dormant, in the sense that the physical sciences could rely on the status of


id: scientific-imperialism-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_imperialism-0.md
category: reference
title: Scientific imperialism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_imperialism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T03:17:28.907176+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scientific-imperialism-20260505-0
summary:
Scientific imperialism is a term that appears to have been coined by Ellis T. Powell when addressing the Commonwealth Club of Canada on 8 September 1920. He defined imperialism as "the sense of arbitrary and capricious domination over the bodies and souls of men," he used the term "scientific imperialism" to mean "the subjection of all the developed and undeveloped powers of the earth to the mind of man." In modern usage, however, scientific imperialism refers to situations in which critics perceive science to act imperiously. Philosopher of science John Dupré described it (in his 2001 book Human Nature and the Limits of Science, p. 74) as "the tendency to push a good scientific idea far beyond the domain in which it was originally introduced, and often far beyond the domain in which it can provide much illumination." He wrote that "devotees of these approaches are inclined to claim that they are in possession not just of one useful perspective on human behavior, but of the key that will open doors to the understanding of ever wider areas of human behavior." Scientific imperialism has also been charged against "those who believe that the study of politics can and should be


