welcome to this ah week two lectures of the
course introduction to professional scientific
communication so in the previous week we looked
into a number of concepts with regard to why
it is important to develop hypothesis ah today
will extend some of these concepts and and
and see why indeed it is important to develop
hypothesis when you talk about any scientific
ah research projects
so just ah recall our discussions we said
that we should for any research project or
whether it is innovation discovery we need
to ask questions the questions could be what
where when how why why not this is the questions
really help you to think and come up with
solutions or answers or possible explanations
for the natural phenomena or based on these
principles you come up with certain devices
technologies which could be of benefit to
the society ah therefore you know every research
project whether it is discovery or innovation
are driven by curiosity so when i say curiosity
it means basically common sense
common sense sounds like you know it is a
its something that all of us are aware of
and we have we do have the ability to look
at ask questions and come up with certain
suggestions or solutions but there any is
many of us take it granted we really do not
put our brain to do what the best it can do
so in other words when you say common sense
we do look at many things around us we take
it that this is how it is we really do not
help in changing the system therefore it can
get better whether it is the way for example
certain buildings are designed or the way
the people move around roads or the way the
vehicles or design each one of these are looked
into in several aspect and people come up
with certain solutions which make it easy
for all of us to leave
so just to define what is common sense common
sense is sound practical judgment concerning
everyday matters it is nothing scientific
here it is day to day living or a basic ability
to pursue understand and judged that is shared
by all of us right so if you look into the
cartoon that is shown here in the slide on
the left ah side is somebody is sitting on
a branch and cutting the branch ah you know
if we cuts through the you are going to fall
down that shows that he doesn't have a common
sense
what is doing is right that is using a tool
to cut the branch but exactly he is sitting
on the other side of where is going to make
the cut it doesn't make him to be in a safer
zone so that is what called as not having
a common sense
look at this structure give me a find this
is perfectly all right because a bicycle is
tied with a pillar with a very good rope and
which has got a number lock pattern lock you
need a key to open it but if you look more
carefully you will find that this method of
you know roping the bicycle with the pillar
doesn't really help because one can lift the
bicycle such that true put come out of the
pillar therefore he did not really use a tool
in the best possible way to secure your bicycle
so this is what called as common sense you
have to apply your brain when you do anything
therefore what you do is exactly what it is
meant for otherwise you do things that really
doesn't make much sense that which called
as not having a common sense
the first person possible in the literature
that's what the western literature says he
is at aristotle he is the first person known
to have discussed what is called as common
sense he he described it as the ability with
which animals not only humans but all other
animals possibly the mammals process sense
perception because you do that information
perceived through your eye or ear or you know
text sound whatever it is these are the sense
perception and memories because you also recall
previous incidences or someone mentioned about
certain events that's the memories and imagination
that is extremely important when you talk
about science because you have to imagine
and this together you know help to reach many
types of basic judgement the very basic concept
of learning when when you are able to you
know ah learn how to ride bicycle and many
other things is also you know you learn quickly
possibly which uses some other common sense
as per
so this is something that report at least
in the western literature about the common
sense we know that it is indeed true so what
is important here is sense perception so have
to be open to observe things if you translate
this thing so scientific research you have
to be open to observe you have to observe
patterns and memories is not just that particular
day what you say but you should have had documentation
that's what you can translate into memory
you have had documentation you can go back
and forth analyze and arrive at whether they
all represent same pattern and then imagination
because these are like snapshots and and when
you talk about for for example it detective
or ah the other types of reasoning you need
to look at snapshots and try to connect them
and tell perhaps this is what happening right
so this is called as imagination so you have
to get all these three together that is exactly
takes us to science right to the common sense
is nothing but asking questions right when
you look at things and toy ask questions and
try to get some answers it could be y for
example you get some an answer when you ask
questions why and how and also the expectations
you know and then you look at the data and
analyze and see what are the data which possibly
tell you what it means and then what doesn't
it mean both are important so you need to
know the limitations of your data set what
it can explain what it cannot explain so that
is what translated in terms of what you call
as model so you do have what is called as
research questions which are in common sense
the the the very simple question that you
ask why and then based on the research questions
you do a literature survey and develop a theory
and then identify variables ah at times that
could be because your data set or your stamping
points could be limited to certain condition
therefore you should know variable
and then based on that you develop an hypothesis
which sort of gives you a theoretical answers
to question that you have had right now this
is after all an hypothesis when you need to
test them further you do experiments or do
one or the other analysis and then you obtain
certain observations and then you extrapolate
so that is the scientific model you used which
is not very different from common sense except
that you do have certain clear well defined
ah methodology which we will talk about in
a while from now
so what are these what is an observation what
is an hypothesis what is ah conclusion just
i will give you some examples from our day
today leaving for example an observation now
observation is the pc the desktop that you
have been using you know the monitor turns
black absolutely blank you don't see anything
and you you know looked at the the cpu or
the pc unit itself and then you find it is
absolutely silent all right
so the question that you ask is what happened
to my pc have been working until the last
minute and all of a sudden it is silent it
is blank the question then with this question
you have to now hypothesize why the monitor
is black and why the computer is silent now
when the hypothesis could be power cut all
of a sudden power gone you don't have a backup
system therefore the computer shutdown all
right but the other other possibilities as
per for example the pc crashed are you have
hit some you know button there in the keyboard
therefore the computer computer gone into
hibernation mode so these are the other possibilities
but you are sure that the computer is new
so absolutely shouldn't be a problem that
it crashed out so quick
and then then you did not do anything because
when you left the computer was on therefore
you think that hibernation is not the possible
reason so you think power cut could be the
reason so what you do you have to test your
hypothesis that the pc is down because of
the power cut what will you do you have to
do a prediction you have to test it so if
my hypothesis correct that there is a power
shutdown then the other electronic device
in or electrical device at my room should
also not function so i turn on the fan i see
that it is not running or turn on the light
its not on which tells me there is no power
all right so that is how you come predictive
you know develop certain method to test your
hypothesis and then you do do that certainly
you turn on and then see that it is indeed
power cut
the conclusion is based on the observation
say suppose you turned on the fan and start
you know rotating that means power is there
so it should be a problem either it is there
is no power cut but it is a problem either
the computer crashed or it is inhabited put
so then you have to come up with another word
like how do you can you try to restart if
it could start then you know that what could
be the problem and so on so you basically
you test the hypothesis that using certain
tools and then you prove the hypothesis or
you disapprove the hypothesis equally important
the second one because if it is conclusion
our hypothesis disproved when you have to
go back to hypothesis number two the alternate
hypothesis if you don't have then your clueless
so that is how you need to go back and do
so that is this where is generic simple you
know example to explain what is an observation
what is the question that you are asking and
how do you develop an hypothesis which can
be tested and how do you predict because you
carry out an experiment then there would be
certain ah outcome so is it having any predictive
value and then finally you control so this
is how you do so in real time you look into
the research can you do have a cartoon that
is a schematic that is shown in the screen
on the left side is that you have initial
ideas based on your own observations are from
the literature and then you do lot of discuss
with people and then you arrive at their problem
right to make a statement about the problem
and then you develop an hypothesis which can
be tested that's what you call it as research
project
so that is how normally ah you know a research
project is executed so that is ah you know
as what i am explaining again is that you
have common sense and and the model research
model that we dis you know just now described
talks about how do you identify or arrive
at an hypothesis and then go over doing where
experiment
so when you do all these things so when you
have you know did a ah define the question
developed an hypothesis and you have develop
tools to test the hypothesis you are had observations
you analyze and then you conclude and this
is your research project and that needs to
be put into certain format so that is called
as a report or paper format which is shown
on the right side
so you would have what is called as introduction
which pretty much explains the overall research
area and why you wanted to ask this questions
including the hypothesis and then you talks
about methods right and then it talks about
the approach that you use that method and
the observation you call as results and then
you have conclusions which translates into
the interpretations of the results all right
so this is how you convert this your observations
based on the project into a research document
which could be a report thesis a paper and
so on
the question is why should i develop a report
all right you do develop a report because
you know the research is considered scientific
ah research helps us to validate whether whatever
you are saying is accurate or not in other
words the research structure what we this
just now discussed whether in in in in terms
of model or execution or when you document
that in terms of a paper helps us to help
us meaning the other person not who anyone
else who reads your report to to test and
validate and accept and ah you know further
elaborate or ah improve upon what you form
so your your observation should be such that
it is quantifiable you should have told that
how many times you are done the experiments
what are your sample numbers what are the
different kinds of reagents you have used
so it is quantifiable and verifiable meaning
if i use a methodology i should be able to
get the same kind of you know results therefore
i look into your methods i look into the research
i do agree with you that your statements are
correct that is verifiable replicable meaning
i can redo the experiments exact the way you
are done because you are documented exactly
we are done and defensible meaning you are
able to go and present your data or someone
else can read your report and say what he
has done what she has done is commendable
job and everything is in place whatever conclusion
this person makes is ah you know very logical
and i agree with that so that is what the
experts or people in your ah research domain
would be able to tell all these are doable
only when you are able to document your results
and the documents you know helps you to defend
your research because you have used the appropriate
methodology you have used appropriate methodology
because you have ask the correct questions
you have ask the correct question because
you have a very valid hypothesis so everything
starts with hypothesis if your hypothesis
is not correct i can assure you nothing is
going to be you know ah you know you know
appreciable way to move so you are going to
have problem everywhere because you end up
wasting time
so when you talk about research what it comes
to mind so when you go and talk to your friends
and say that ok i am going to do research
right and ask them to close your eyes and
think about how you would be when you become
a researcher you ask anybody or you ask yourself
if you are not started research as at right
most often people you know think this kind
of a scenario where you have a lab coat it
is a lab which has an equipments and you are
very serious sitting on desk working on something
this is the imagination comes because most
of the experiments that at least in biomedical
field or in chemistry and other such areas
it is done indoor inside the lab ok
so there are certain ah guidelines as to how
do you do right research so there is a typical
concept that you know the lab is secured we
have lots of glass bottles the reagents of
different colour and you sit and do research
right this is a second of imagination and
let's have a look at it i am going to show
you some snapshots ok and then i am going
to ask you at the end of the snapshots few
questions and then we will revisit this as
to why i am asking this question ok the first
one i am going show you is a few snapshots
of in advertisement that comes commercials
either in tv or newspaper about horlicks you
must have seen these adds right
and then you also have advertisement for for
example colgate again you have an add here
and it could be even for ah hair oil again
you see an advertisement coming and for example
a detergent which used to wash clothes or
it could be a soap that you use either for
hand wash and so on now the question is what
is common amongst all these adds if you think
about very carefully in every add or most
of the add you find one individual who is
wearing a white colour lab coat what's the
reason the reason is these company's try to
tell you that our product has been tested
by a research lab so it is certified it is
going to do exactly what we are saying which
makes you to believe this is undergone a scientific
scrutiny exactly the way you are imagine that
you are in a lab with a lab coat and so on
so that is the credibility of science the
sciences that is quantifiable you can repeat
if you know you can you know verifiable you
can go back and look into my all the records
and you would say that i have done all the
experiment that is required in the best possible
way the results don't lie replicable you yourself
can do this and differentiable i can i can
i can defend my work and say that what they
i have done is correct therefore it is you
know that is the basis of research that whatever
you show is based on the facts and nothing
is fabricated nothing is falsified and that
is perhaps one of the reasons why you know
most of these products which are in the healthcare
domain come with certain individuals having
a white lab coat to sort of tell even the
lay public that is a tested and proven and
so on whether indeed that's the case i don't
know i am not saying that these products are
good but that is what being used as a standard
to launch that product right so that is the
power of science
that is it cannot be falsified therefore you
know there are ways by which science is done
and there are ways by which science is documented
their ways by which the science is presented
and these are universal you know kind of a
guidelines because the entire word uses it
therefore important you know each one of us
who practice science should learn to you know
use these guidelines therefore others can
understand and appreciate what you are done
as a researcher
let us go back to the same concept the concept
is that how do you arrive at ideas or hypothesis
so this is something have been repeating because
its extremely important that you develop a
very very good hypothesis therefore your project
can really quick start so the way it is shown
on the left side is that you have initial
ideas and then i go and then do a literature
research discuss and come up with the research
hypothesis
this is not unidirectional this is something
that we discussed earlier as well so you have
certain hypothesis based on certain theory
it could be the preliminary result that you
have or published work of someone else and
then based on that you develop your own hypothesis
and then you test and generate data the data
you have and then you sort of you know interpret
that validate it and then you again come up
and say something new in addition to proving
your hypothesis you further make certain you
know theories which again can be tested again
by you or someone else and so on
so this is a cyclic process therefore you
know for anyone else to follow up your work
and look at your data and even have a very
different kind of interpretation you need
to present the data in the best possible way
therefore every else can look into and get
the benefit out of the research that you have
done so that is what called as you know once
you have hypothesis you have made a research
design we have done measurements we have done
whatever experiment you have done and you
generate data and then you use the data to
analyze which could be verification statistical
analysis and so on
and then you present you know kind of a generalized
you know a kind of ah synthesize a particular
ah outcome or philosophy or theory you know
which is a culmination of everything your
hypothesis your data the others who are published
you know ah results in the similar domain
their thoughts everything culminating to what
is called as a theory which is you know extension
of your hypothesis you have mans possibly
proven the hypothesis or tested it and then
validated it
and now you are giving something new now this
again can lead to you know another hypothesis
and then again it goes on that is how what
you call as resets always is incremental because
what you do is going to help others as per
therefore its important that you communicate
in the best possible way often there is discussion
that you know the discoveries are very different
from inventions or inventions are vary from
different form discoveries and they say that
for discovery like what you do in basic biology
or basic chemistry physics maths and so on
here it is you know you have somebody has
done something and you read and then you sort
of you do something more and try to understand
the complexity that is otherwise happening
you take about our own body right
how our brain works is still a million dollar
question so you don't know exactly how the
brain works there are a large number of lapse
research group work on it everyone talk about
a particular process they study and they say
that this is how the memory is coded this
is how you are able to retrieve the memory
this is how your brain is able to think and
so on but still you have not solved as to
how the brain functions so this is discovery
but the question is can you you know when
you when you talk about inventions is it very
different from discoveries do you need an
hypothesis for any inventions right
so these are debates that goes on people say
that you know inventions are not like i can
make something from nowhere i don't really
need to have an hypothesis and so on but i
will give you some examples nothing comes
out from just nowhere for everything you need
to have certain observations based on that
you are going to think something and then
you develop an hypothesis even for an invention
so i am going to give you one such example
there could be hundreds of examples that is
something that you may wish to go and study
yourself
so what is shown a on the left is considered
to be a wonder wall paint so it is called
as self cleaning wall paint lotusan ok so
the idea it is being marketed in the europe
probably it has come even in an in india they
say that this paint is something that would
not allow the dust is settle on the wall so
the settled there is a rain or just you have
a pipe with you know ah water with force and
thats just wash it all the dust will go so
you don't need to really clean it you know
its is fantastic
but this is not something you know came out
from nowhere this is not something invention
that did not have any observation this is
based on very simple process that you find
if you are in the rural area if you look into
the lotus ah the leaf now if you sprinkle
some water droplets you will find that they
don't really you know adhere to the surface
they become bubble like the way you must have
seen mercury they go around and then they
they they don't stick to the live at all it
is because the surface is so rough so doesn't
allow any contact points therefore when you
have water which is rolling over subsurface
it will carry we all the dust that are there
and in fact with a very similar principal
they have used to develop a pain which now
you know when you paint on the wall now water
droplets can carry the dust from your beautiful
home so again these are called as biomimetics
which is again based on natural principles
so everything weather is a design of a submarine
whether is a design of missile whether is
a design of you know aeroplane all these are
based on certain concept that you can see
whether its a bird whether it's a dolphin
and so on we can learn a lot from the nature
which tells you what is the time tested design
that can work in fact if you asks then you
are yet to make a ah vehicle or a helicopter
or aeroplane which can mimic the kind of a
manure that the dragonfly can fly right as
you are yet to understand
so these are the challenges so the inventions
as well don't come from nowhere so have to
observe you have to understand and develop
an hypothesis therefore how you can even design
certain machines which can do at least a few
of the beautiful things that our body does
or the animals to or plants too and so on
so that's the challenge therefore you know
hypothesis is extremely important for even
in the in terms of concept design hypothesis
help for example if you are designing a motorbike
if you are designing a car it is not that
you are designing something that you like
because these are products that should be
sold out therefore you need to understand
what is the design that people might like
and if you are targeting a particular age
group you need to go and sort of interact
with them as to what design they might like
what feature they might like and you want
to embed them to make it as a profitable product
so everywhere you need to have an hypothesis
and then you have to go and test and then
kill the hypothesis are revive and come up
with the alternate hypothesis and finally
implement so hypothesis is everywhere whether
it is basic science or when you do any ah
innovative research so therefore you know
ah the documentation reports are extremely
important that's the point that we are talking
about
and and normally most of the projects have
the same you know structure when you talk
about science projects which could be represented
in the shape of hourglass you must have seen
the hourglass you have a sand on the upper
chamber it would take about sixty minutes
for all the sand to come back to the come
to the lower chamber that's called as hourglass
then you invert it so you have a narrow construction
there so that is exactly a kind of a structure
that is you know proposed for most of the
research projects that is to begin with broad
question so you have a larger context and
then you cannot until the everything right
you have to define you know an focus and if
take a few question that you can you can address
practically possible and then you operationalize
meaning you implement or execute certain experiments
to question ah to to get an answer to this
questions and then you get certain data that
is you observe
and then the data points you analyze and then
you have certain conclusions and the conclusions
are used to extrapolate and give a generic
response so if you open any text book for
example g or molecular cell biology these
are you know having these books have a number
of chapters right from biomolecules to cell
signaling to cell divisions to aging they
cover wide variety of topic all these text
book material that you read you know they
talk about how the genes are regulated or
they talk about how cells communicate with
one another now they talk about all the signaling
process everything these are very generic
statement without really telling in which
system such kind of communication happens
reason being that there are very few systems
that is being studied most of the cell function
that we know how come from the studies that
are done in eukaryotic for example east or
in mammalian cells then you would try to implicate
that perhaps this is what happening everywhere
is a kind of universal rule which maybe or
may not be correct but that is the understanding
we have so that is how normally the ah the
interpretations or you know you make generic
conclusions and later one can go back and
then study other system and show that indeed
it is not universal and there are exceptions
and you study more you will find that the
exceptions are not that exceptions but there
are quite a large number of organisms or plants
do follow certain exception therefore they
are no longer exceptions
so this is how science evolves right here
the point is that regardless further it is
discovery or invention you need to have a
very good observational capacity you should
look into the natural phenomena develop an
hypothesis and come up with certain even novel
technologies or devices that could be of great
help to the mankind so when you look into
the research project the way the most of the
research projects are structured they are
structured in certain guidelines the very
reason that there are certain guidelines as
to how you should carry out research is important
because you know whatever outcome of your
research project is going to be looked at
is going to be ah read carefully by other
researchers in the field therefore they can
learn a bit from your findings and they can
also develop their own hypothesis based on
your results and observations
therefore the methodology is or the approach
for research is very very similar across the
globe and it is also called as the hourglass
notion of research it is it is a kind of a
generic structure for most of the projects
it is called hourglass because now you have
a broad understanding generic ideas and there
are broad questions and from these questions
you ask very ah pointed objectives that is
what you call at that you develop these objectives
has to focus has exactly what you will be
looking at in your research project
and when you execute this plan in terms of
methodology in terms of approach using tools
appropriate tools and then you get data which
is what you call as you observe ah the outcome
of your experiments and finally you analyze
the data and then you reach conclusions based
on the data and then you again general i and
sort of explain whole lot of thing so this
very approach is based on the hypothesis that
you develop therefore hypothesis is as important
as any other ah you know aspects of the research
in fact hypothesis is very very important
because if your hypothesis is not correct
the rest of the thing that they are going
to you are going to do in the project he is
not going to really sustain because it will
not be yield the kind of results or progress
that you wanted
so to explain you know what hypothesis mean
i have already introduce a topic that is the
how the for example your pc all of are sudden
stopped you have an hypothesis that the monitor
and the pc is not working because this is
power cut and then you have predicted if i
for example you know if indeed that he is
a cause that is power is a cause for my pc
not a function then any other electrical equipment
that is that is there in the room if i turn
on they should not be functional because there
is a power cut that's how root of you know
test that's called as a predictive model and
the you will certainly test and then you have
an outcome so this is very important
so therefore you know hypothesis is something
that you can based on the hypothesis we can
predict therefore we can test then you go
and get data which would either support your
hypothesis or would say the hypothesis not
correct so to define the hypothesis a hypothesis
can be defined as a tentative explanation
on the research problem a possible outcome
of the research for and educated guess about
the research outcome
in other words you have certain questions
for which you know you are looked at the literature
you did something reserves and then you come
up with certain explanation suggesting this
is what happening and if i do something this
is what i expected this is the hypothesis
right and hypothesis is a statement of explain
or explanation that is suggested by knowledge
or observation but not at improved or disproved
as long as it is not proved or disproved determines
hypothesis once it is disproved this is no
longer hypothesis if it is proven then it
is you know this is what happening therefore
easiest to become an hypothesis right
so therefore hypothesis is a first step to
you know to your major project in this regard
i would like to highlight one research paper
that are come in a journal called journal
of general psychology where the authors have
really looked at various aspects of you know
science students in terms of you know how
do we develop hypothesis how many hypothesis
they develop how fast they develop hypothesis
and so on
so there are various aspects for this particular
study but what i would like to point out outcome
is one particular outcome the outcome is as
it is vibrating copied from the abstract of
this paper it states that among the participants
who generate a hypothesis those who generated
the correct hypothesis before beginning the
testing were more likely to solve the problem
suggesting that poor hypothesis generation
abilities might be a barrier to hypothesis
testing performance
in other words if you are unable to generate
hypothesis which is you know close to what
you would expect at the end of the results
which is most likely to be proven correct
then you know your ability to see when solve
the problem is not as that good so in fact
therefore you need to understand as to how
to develop hypothesis the correct hypothesis
therefore you can succeed in your research
project its extremely important that is why
i am spending lot of time in saying what is
an hypothesis and how to develop an hypothesis
