By Julia Laquerre
The initial stage of scientific knowledge is the development of an idea or a hypothesis. The hypothesis is rigorously tested through an experiment and the results are written in a research paper to be submitted for verification by others in the field. To pass peer review, the experimental methods must be reproducible and the results accurate.
Once the scientific knowledge produced by the experiment passes peer review, the research paper is published in an academic journal and presented at a conference with arcane individuals of the discipline. The experiment and hypothesis can be developed further through conference discussions. The deliberation over the hypothesis, experiment/methods, and results are essential to understand how the scientific knowledge in question can be applied and further tested.
Without open communication and collaboration, there are no scientific advancements. An example of an advancement could be the development of another hypothesis that stems from the experimental results in question. Without Friedreich Miescher’s discovery of DNA and Rosalind Franklin’s beautiful images of DNA using x-ray crystallography, Watson and Crick would have never understood the structure of DNA.
Once the collaboration within the field is carried out, the scientific information is circulated to the public through scientific publications, such as National Geographic or Scientific American. General journal publications are the next to publish the newfound scientific knowledge.
After the scientific knowledge is disseminated to the general public, they synthesize it how they deem fit. People may not fully understand the information and may alter it when discussing it with others. How the collective public interprets scientific information impacts whether further studies will be executed and how receptive they will be too similar scientific discoveries in the future. Scientists, scientific journals, and general publications must be mindful of how they present the findings; one wrong word could cause widespread panic or an inaccurate sense of complacency.
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