LEO: Foundations of Life Science: Introduction to Scientific Thinking

Ebooks

Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and Its Ambitions, 1500-1700 by Peter Dear
ISBN: 0691142068
Publication Date: 2009
This book is about the historical rise of scientific thinking in the Early Modern period. It states what was the accepted body of knowledge up to that time and describes how various philosophers and early scientists contributed to the development of modern science.
The Launching of Modern American Science, 1846-1876 by Robert V. Bruce
ISBN: 1597401927
Publication Date: 1988
This book discusses how science developed into a profession in mid-19th century America and the United States moved from obscurity to a major world leader in the sciences.

Online Reference Books

The Scientific Revolution: An Encyclopedia by William E. Burns
ISBN: 1576075346
Publication Date: 2002
This book focuses on the scientific revolution, which refers to the way modern scientific thought replaced older methods of inquiry and worldviews in Early Modern Europe beginning in the 16th century.

Research Tips

EBSCO, one of our electronic resources vendors, put together these research infographics. View them all here or select the one you need from the list below.

FREE Open Access Sources

An unlock symbol next to a title means that it is freely accessible on the web without a subscription. You do not have to be logged in to the library systems to use it. We often call these "open access" sources.

Introduction to Foundations of Life Science

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Fen Wetland Restoration, Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program project in Ovando, Montana, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License

This is the LEO Guide to the IDS Foundations of Life Science course. It is organized by by broad subject area, which reflects the integrated nature of life science.

Each subject area includes journal articles from both USAO subscription sources and freely available through open access, free websites with scientific information, online and print reference works, and ebooks. Some of these are written at an easily accessible level, while others are written for scientists and thus are more difficult.

Articles

What is scientific thinking? Two cases of problem-solving by some newcomers in science
This article argues that non-scientists, though a basic understanding of scientific inquiry and a willingness to educate themselves, can make important discoveries. It discusses two such discoveries made by amateurs.
The Dogma of “The” Scientific Method
This article argues that science is a complex process that cannot be limited to the step-by-step explanation of the scientific method often taught in K-12 schools. The writers give examples of the varying processes used by scientists who made important discoveries.
Some Thoughts on the Ethics of Research and Publication
This article, from Radiation Research journal, discusses the ethical and legal requirements scientists are required to follow as they conduct their work. It also discusses the journal's ethical requirements for authors and peer reviewers, which are similar to the requirements of most academic journals.
Negativity towards negative results: a discussion of the disconnect between scientific worth and scientific culture (OPEN ACCESS)
This article discusses how negative results (e.g. results that show that a phenomenon does not happen) are an important part of the scientific process.
Cargo Cult Science:Some remarks on science, pseudoscience, and learning not to fool yourself (OPEN ACCESS)
This is an article based on Caltech's 1974 commencement address, which was given by physicist Richard P. Feynman. The speech is clearly tailored for his audience, a nearly all-male group of engineers and scientists. However, the theme of his speech, honesty in research and critically analyzing one's own experiments and results, is broadly applicable.
Motivation, Cognition, and Pseudoscience
This article explains how basic human social motives and psychological processes can lead people to have pseudoscientific beliefs. It explains how pseudoscience appeals to people's psychological needs to understand themselves and the world, maintain their self-esteem, explain unexpected events, and control future outcomes.

Life Science Databases

You can use these databases to find science articles.

BioOne
A collection of critical, high-quality titles across the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. Nash Library provides access to a total of 97 full text titles. BioOne.1 includes 87 publications, and the BioOne Open Access Collection now includes 14 titles. 84% of BioOne.1's titles are ISI ranked, and many titles are considered leaders in their respective fields.
Biological Abstracts 1969 - Present
A collection of bibliographic references covering international life science and biomedical research literature published from more than 4,000 journals. It provides access to the latest information in many life science disciplines and contains nearly 7.7 million records from as far back as 1969, with more than 370,000 citations added each year. Most of the records include informative abstracts written by the author.
GreenFILE
Covers all aspects of human impact to the environment. Includes content on the environmental effects of individuals, corporations and local/national governments, and what can be done at each level to minimize these effects. Topics covered include global climate change, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. The database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 535,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 5,800 records.
MEDLINE
This is a subscription database for medical articles. It includes citations for over 5,600 journals.
PubMed
This is a free database with millions of health sciences citations. Some of the articles are freely available, while others you may request through interlibrary loan.

Subject Guide

Kelly Brown

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Science Education Standards

Oklahoma State Department of Education Science Standards
This site includes the standards developed by the state of Oklahoma for K-12 Science education.
Next Generation Science Standards: By States, For States
These are science education standards developed by National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Achieve, Inc. They are not government-mandated; rather, they are guidelines that can be used by states to draft their science standards.

Retractions & Correcting the Record

Occasionally, scientific papers are retracted by their publishers. Retractions typically occur because an article is found to be fundamentally flawed. These flaws may range from accidental technical errors to deliberate fraud. Retractions are an important way that the scientists correct their body of knowledge, ensuring that only trustworthy studies continue to be used.

Retraction Watch (blog)
This blog keeps track of current retractions and controversies. Bear in mind that even though it may seem like there are many retractions, they are just a fraction of the thousands of scientific papers published every year.
‘We Need to Take a Look at the Data’: How 2 Persistent Grad Students Upended a Blockbuster Study
This is an interview with one of two grad students, who, seeking to replicate a major study, discovered that the study's data was falsified. Based on their evidence, the study was retracted from the journal Science. The students demonstrated the critical thinking skills one should use in any field of endeavor.
Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity
This is a hoax article that physicist Alan Sokal submitted to a postmodernist journal, Social Text, to see if the journal would publish it even though it is scientifically nonsense. The journal did, and Sokal then openly admitted that it was a hoax, intending to show how the editors' view of science as a human endeavor had caused them to disregard basic scientific principles and effectively deny that science can objectively tell us anything about the world. Reading it is instructive because like a "real" article, it quotes and cites many sources and uses a complex vocabulary, but its sources do not support its conclusions.