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Unit 20: General Science

  • Page ID
    4084
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    • 20.1: Epidemiology
      Just because A is often associated with B, does not prove that A causes B. How can one establish that A causes B? In the laboratory you could set up a controlled experiment treating one group of animals with A and having a second control group without A but otherwise treated the same (thus avoiding confounding variables). Such experimentation is rarely possible (or ethical) in humans so we must turn to the methods and criteria of epidemiology.
    • 20.2: Types of Clinical Studies
      Researchers in human (and veterinary) medicine are always on the lookout for new drugs, medical procedures, and life-style changes that will improve their ability to bring better health to patients. For each one, they must establish whether it truly represents an improvement from what was used before.
    • 20.3: Scientific Methods
      There is nothing mysterious or even particularly unusual about the things that scientists do. There are many ways to work on scientific problems. They all require common sense. Beyond that, they all display certain features that are especially - but not uniquely - characteristic of science.
    • 20.4: Scientific Papers
    • 20.5: Statistical Methods
    • 20.6: Drugs

    Thumbnail: Original map by John Snow showing the clusters of cholera cases in the London epidemic of 1854. (Public Domain).


    This page titled Unit 20: General Science is shared under a CC BY 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by John W. Kimball via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.

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