FIGURE 1–6 Exploration and Discovery Ideas in science can arise in many ways—from simple curiosity or from the need to solve a particular problem. Scientists often begin investigations by making observations, asking questions, talking with colleagues, and reading about previous experiments.

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Practical Problems Sometimes, ideas for scientific investigations arise from practical problems. Salt marshes, for example, play vital roles in the lives of many ecologically and commercially important organisms, as you will learn in the next unit. Yet they are under intense pressure from industrial and housing development. Should marshes be protected from development? If new houses or farms are located near salt marshes, can they be designed to protect the marshes? These practical questions and issues inspire scientific questions, hypotheses, and experiments.

The Role of Technology Technology, science, and society are closely linked. Discoveries in one field of science may lead to new technologies. Those technologies, in turn, enable scientists in other fields to ask new questions or to gather data in new ways. For example, the development of new portable, remote data-collecting equipment enables field researchers to monitor environmental conditions around the clock, in several locations at once. This capability allows researchers to pose and test new hypotheses. Technological advances can also have big impacts on daily life. In the field of genetics and biotechnology, for instance, it is now possible to mass-produce complex substances—such as vitamins, antibiotics, and hormones—that before were only available naturally.

In Your Notebook Describe a situation where you were skeptical of a “fact” you had seen or heard.

FIGURE 1–7 Ideas From Practical Problems People living on a strip of land like this one in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, may face flooding and other problems.

Pose Questions What are some scientific questions that can arise from a situation like this one?

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