An Essential Scientific Process

Text 3 In the idealized version of how science is done,facts about the world are waiting to be observed and collected by objective researchers who use the scientific method to carry out their work.But in the everyday practice of science,discovery frequently follows an ambiguous and complicated route.We aim to be objective,but we cannot escape the context of our unique life experience.Prior knowledge and interest influence what we experience,what we think our experiences mean,and the subsequent actions we take.Opportunities for misinterpretation,error,and self-deception abound.Consequently,discovery claims should be thought of as protoscience.Similar to newly staked mining claims,they are full of potential.But it takes collective scrutiny and acceptance to transform a discovery claim into a mature discovery.This is the credibility process,through which the individual researcher’s me,here,now becomes the community’s anyone,anywhere,anytime.Objective knowledge is the goal,not the starting point.Once a discovery claim becomes public,the discoverer receives intellectual credit.But,unlike with mining claims,the community takes control of what happens next.Within the complex social structure of the scientific community,researchers make discoveries;editors and reviewers act as gatekeepers by controlling the publication process;other scientists use the new finding to suit their own purposes;and finally,the public（including other scientists）receives the new discovery and possibly accompanying technology.As a discovery claim works it through the community,the interaction and confrontation between shared and competing beliefs about the science and the technology involved transforms an individual’s discovery claim into the community’s credible discovery.Two paradoxes exist throughout this credibility process.First,scientific work tends to focus on some aspect of prevailing Knowledge that is viewed as incomplete or incorrect.Little reward accompanies duplication and confirmation of what is already known and believed.The goal is new-search,not re-search.Not surprisingly,newly published discovery claims and credible discoveries that appear to be important and convincing will always be open to challenge and potential modification or refutation by future researchers.Second,novelty itself frequently provokes disbelief.Nobel Laureate and physiologist Albert Azent-Gyorgyi once described discovery as“seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.”But thinking what nobody else has thought and telling others what they have missed may not change their views.Sometimes years are required for truly novel discovery claims to be accepted and appreciated.In the end,credibility“happens”to a discovery claim–a process that corresponds to what philosopher Annette Baier has described as the commons of the mind.“We reason together,challenge,revise,and complete each other’s reasoning and each other’s conceptions of reason.”35.Which of the following would be the best title of the test?

A.Novelty as an Engine of Scientific Development.
B.Collective Scrutiny in Scientific Discovery.
C.Evolution of Credibility in Doing Science.
D.Challenge to Credibility at the Gate to Science.

An Essential Scientific Process

All life on the earth depends upon green plants. Using sunlight, theplants produce their own food. Then animals feed upon the plants. They take inthe nutrients the plants have made sted. But that’s not all.Sunlight also helps a plant produce oxygen. Some of the oxygen is used by theplant, but a plant usually produces me oxygen than it uses. The excess oxygenis necessary f animals other ganisms to live.

The process of changing light into food oxygen is calledphotosynthesis. Besides light energy from the sun, plants also use water carbon dioxide. The water gets to the plant through its roots. The carbondioxide enters the leaves through tiny openings called stomata. The carbondioxide travels to chloplasts, special cells in the bodies of green plants.This is photosynthesis takes place. Chloplasts contain the chlophyllsthat give plants their green col. The chlophylls are the molecules thattrap light energy. The trapped light energy changes water carbon dioxide toproduce oxygen a simple sugar called glucose.

Carbon dioxide oxygen move into out of the stomata. Watervap also moves out of the stomata. Me than 90 percent of water a planttakes in through its roots escapes through the stomata. During the daytime, thestomata of most plants are open. This allows carbon dioxide to enter the leavesf photosynthesis. As night falls, carbon dioxide is not needed. The stomataof most plants close. Water loss stops.

If photosynthesis ceased, there would be little food other ganicmatter on the earth. Most ganisms would disappear. The earth’s atmospherewould no longer contain oxygen. Photosynthesis is essential f life on ourplanet.

　　词汇：

nutrient n.营养物

ganism n.生物体，有机体

carbon dioxide n.二氧化碳

chloplast n.叶绿体

molecule n.分子

vap n.水蒸气

oxygen n.氧气

photosynthesis n.光合作用

chlophyll n.叶绿素

glucose n.葡萄糖

cease v.停止

　　注释：

1.Then animals feed upon the plants.动物以植物为食。

　　练习：

3.In the title, the term Essential Scientific Process refers to

A.photosynthesis.

B.the fmation of glucose.

C.global warming.

D.water getting to the roots of plants.