Editing Scientific method (section)

===Experiments===
{{Main|Experiment}}<blockquote>{{Anchor|DNA-experiments}}[[File:DNA icon.svg|frameless|22x22px|link=|alt=DNA label]] Watson and Crick showed an initial (and incorrect) proposal for the structure of DNA to a team from [[King's College London]] – [[Rosalind Franklin]], [[Maurice Wilkins]], and [[Raymond Gosling]]. Franklin immediately spotted the flaws which concerned the water content. Later Watson saw Franklin's [[photo 51]], a detailed X-ray diffraction image, which showed an X-shape<ref>{{cite web |title=The Secret of Photo 51 |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/photo51/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831201252/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/photo51/ |archive-date=2017-08-31 |access-date=2017-09-11 |work=NOVA |publisher=PBS}}</ref><ref name=photo51Explained >[[Cynthia Wolberger]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tMuMRY1oDo (2021) Photograph 51 explained]</ref> and was able to confirm the structure was helical.<ref name="TeaTime">{{harvp|McElheny|2004|p=52}}: Friday, January 30, 1953. Tea time — Franklin confronts Watson and his paper – "Of course it [Pauling's pre-print] is wrong. DNA is not a helix." However, Watson then visits Wilkins' office, sees [[photo 51]], and immediately recognizes the diffraction pattern of a helical structure. But additional questions remained, requiring additional iterations of their research. For example, the number of strands in the backbone of the helix (Crick suspected 2 strands, but cautioned Watson to examine that more critically), the location of the base pairs (inside the backbone or outside the backbone), etc. One key point was that they realized that the quickest way to reach a result was not to continue a mathematical analysis, but to build a physical model. Later that evening — Watson urges Wilkins to begin model-building immediately. But Wilkins agrees to do so only after Franklin's departure.</ref><ref name="Watson 1968 167">{{harvp|Watson|1968|p=167}}: "The instant I saw the picture my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race." Page 168 shows the X-shaped pattern of the B-form of [[DNA]], clearly indicating crucial details of its helical structure to Watson and Crick.</ref>{{efn|name= nextItemToSettle| The goal shifts: after observing the x-ray diffraction pattern of DNA,<ref name=TeaTime /><ref name=photo51Explained /> and as time was of the essence,<ref name=econ/> Watson and Crick realize that fastest way to discover DNA's structure was not by mathematical analysis,<ref name= reasonsFirstRule /> but by [[#DNA-iterations|building physical models]].<ref name= SameShape />}}</blockquote>
{{anchor|suitableTest|Testing|Crucial experiment}}Once predictions are made, they can be sought by experiments. If the test results contradict the predictions, the hypotheses which entailed them are called into question and become less tenable. Sometimes the experiments are conducted incorrectly or are not very well designed when compared to a [[crucial experiment]]. If the experimental results confirm the predictions, then the hypotheses are considered more likely to be correct, but might still be wrong and continue to be subject to [[#Evaluation and improvement|further testing.]] The [[experimental control]] is a technique for dealing with observational error. This technique uses the contrast between multiple samples, or observations, or populations, under differing conditions, to see what varies or what remains the same. We vary the conditions for the acts of measurement, to help isolate what has changed. [[Mill's canons]] can then help us figure out what the important factor is.<ref>[[John Stuart Mill|Mill, John Stuart]], "A System of Logic", University Press of the Pacific, Honolulu, 2002, {{ISBN|1-4102-0252-6}}.</ref> [[Factor analysis]] is one technique for discovering the important factor in an effect.

Depending on the predictions, the experiments can have different shapes. It could be a classical experiment in a laboratory setting, a [[double-blind]] study or an archaeological [[excavation (archaeology)|excavation]]. Even taking a plane from [[New York City|New York]] to [[Paris]] is an experiment that tests the [[aerodynamics|aerodynamical]] hypotheses used for constructing the plane.

These institutions thereby reduce the research function to a cost/benefit,<ref name="conjugatePairs" /> which is expressed as money, and the time and attention of the researchers to be expended,<ref name="conjugatePairs" /> in exchange for a report to their constituents.<ref name="nsf">National Science Foundation (NSF)  (2021) [https://www.nsf.gov/oig/reports/ NSF Reports] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817165231/https://www.nsf.gov/oig/reports/|date=2021-08-17}} and [https://www.nsf.gov/news/ News] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210820162008/https://www.nsf.gov/news/|date=2021-08-20}}</ref> Current large instruments, such as CERN's [[Large Hadron Collider]] (LHC),<ref name="lhc">{{Cite web |title=LHC long term schedule |url=https://lhc-commissioning.web.cern.ch/lhc-commissioning/schedule/LHC-long-term.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200425105121/https://lhc-commissioning.web.cern.ch/lhc-commissioning/schedule/LHC-long-term.htm |archive-date=2020-04-25 |access-date=2021-08-22 |website=lhc-commissioning.web.cern.ch}} (2021)</ref> or [[LIGO]],<ref name="ligo">{{cite web |title=ligo.caltech.edu (1999) Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory |url=https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210901125538/https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/ |archive-date=2021-09-01 |access-date=2021-08-30}}</ref> or the [[National Ignition Facility]] (NIF),<ref name="nif">{{cite web |title=NIF (2021) What Is the National Ignition Facility? |url=https://lasers.llnl.gov/about/what-is-nif |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731064919/https://lasers.llnl.gov/about/what-is-nif |archive-date=2017-07-31 |access-date=2021-08-22}}</ref> or the [[International Space Station]] (ISS),<ref name="iss">{{cite web |date=12 January 2015 |title=ISS (2021) International Space Station |url=https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050907073730/http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html |archive-date=2005-09-07 |access-date=2021-08-22}}</ref> or the [[James Webb Space Telescope]] (JWST),<ref name="jwst">{{cite web |title=JWST (2021) WEBB Space Telescope |url=https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120104225155/http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ |archive-date=2012-01-04 |access-date=2021-08-22}}</ref><ref name="jwstDeploymentSeq">James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzGLKQ7_KZQ (12 Nov 2021) James Webb Space Telescope Deployment Sequence (Nominal)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211223035530/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzGLKQ7_KZQ|date=2021-12-23}} highlights the predictions from launch to day+29,</ref> entail expected costs of billions of dollars, and timeframes extending over decades. These kinds of institutions affect public policy, on a national or even international basis, and the researchers would require shared access to such machines and their [[#otherScientists|adjunct infrastructure]].{{efn-lg|name= feedTheMachinery| The machinery of the mind can only transform knowledge, but never originate it, unless it be fed with facts of observation. —[[C.S. Peirce]]<ref name= How/>}}<ref name="Crutchfield" >{{cite web|url=http://csc.ucdavis.edu/~chaos/chaos/talks/CSTheorySFIRetreat.pdf|title=James Crutchfield (2003) "Complex Systems Theory?"|access-date=2018-05-27 |archive-date=2021-04-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418204840/http://csc.ucdavis.edu/~chaos/chaos/talks/CSTheorySFIRetreat.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{anchor|ethicalPosition}}Scientists assume an attitude of openness and accountability on the part of those experimenting. Detailed record-keeping is essential, to aid in recording and reporting on the experimental results, and supports the effectiveness and integrity of the procedure. They will also assist in reproducing the experimental results, likely by others. Traces of this approach can be seen in the work of [[Hipparchus]] (190–120 BCE), when determining a value for the precession of the Earth, while [[Scientific control|controlled experiments]] can be seen in the works of [[Muhammad ibn Jābir al-Harrānī al-Battānī|al-Battani]] (853–929 CE)<ref>[[Muhammad ibn Jābir al-Harrānī al-Battānī|al-Battani]], ''De Motu Stellarum'' [[Latin translations of the 12th century|translation from Arabic to Latin in 1116]], as cited by E. S. Kennedy, ''A Survey of Islamic Astronomical Tables,'' (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, 46, 2), Philadelphia, 1956, pp. 10–11, 32–34.</ref> and [[#alhazen|Alhazen]] (965–1039 CE).{{sfnp|Smith|2001b}}{{efn|''[[Book of Optics]]'' Book II [3.52] to [3.66]  Summary p.444 for Alhazen's experiments on color; pp.343—394 for his physiological experiments on the eye{{sfnp|Smith|2001b}} }}{{efn|name= straightLinesOnly |''[[Book of Optics]]'' Book Seven, Chapter Two [2.1] p.220: — light travels through transparent bodies, such as air, water, glass, transparent stones, in straight lines. "Indeed, this is observable by means of experiment".<ref name= smith2010 >{{harvp|Smith|2010|p=220}} Book Seven covers refraction.</ref> }}