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Undergraduate Learning in Science Project Working Paper 53.5 Question 5: How are conflicts of ideas resolved in the scientificcommunity?Responses to this question were given to by all but three of the students inthe first interview and by all but one in the third interview. All studentsacknowledged that there are disputes in science; some students providedexamples from the history of science, others drew on their knowledge of thefield relating to their project to provide evidence. In giving their comments,students addressed the issue of why differences between scientists may occuras well as how they are resolved.3.5.1 Why differences between scientists occurAll the respondents accepted that disagreements between scientists occur.The reasons they gave for this focused on methodological issues, differencesin the interpretation of evidence and differences in theoretical perspective.5aMethodological reasonsThe simplest reason put forward for scientists holding different views wasthat in some cases mistakes are made in methods and techniques. In thecontext of a discussion on how two research groups might disagree aboutwhether or not a particular scientific problem was solved, a studentcommented:I think it might occur quite frequently.... if you do adifferent approach, you encounter something different ....so you might make a mistake somewhere. You’ll be usingthe same things, but when you start extracting from othersit gives you different results .... I know of a particular, afew papers, that ...claim to discover something new butthey ... sort of make a mistake somewhere. 1.I.115.Comments were made about differences in instrumentation, data collectionand processing techniques. A geology student commented that the data itselfmight be the same but the results could differ if processed differently.Well, it [a difference in view] would be differences in theuse of the software. 1.F.149.A subtle point was made by a genetics student who argued that when youanalyse the methods used by different researchers, it is possible that they areactually looking at different things.This particular thing that...this group discovered might bedifferent from the other groups-what they discovered...say in a cell, it interacts at different genes or in differentstages so you can’t really claim that the other group waswrong, actually. 1.I.118.40
Undergraduate Learning in Science Project Working Paper 5The point being made here is that although superficially an experiment mayappear to be conducted so as to replicate the work of others, in practice therewill be differences in the way an experiment proceeds, so actually there willbe subtle differences in the phenomenon being studied. This point bearssome similarity to an argument put forward in Collins (1985) whichquestions the concept of replicability in science.5b Difference in interpretation of evidenceOne student commented that differences in the interpretation of evidencecould be due to limitations in the accuracy of measurements. He argued thatbecause of this it is never possible to prove a theory definitely and, byimplication, different interpretations are possible:no theory can [be proved definitely] because there isalways a limit to experimentation and to our accuracythat we can prove something...no one can say they’vedefinitely the correct theory. 1.G.124.A further reason for differences in interpretation of data was put forward bya geology student in discussing a dispute relating to her project. In this casedifferences in interpretation were presented as differences in how the datawere construed.Well, when you look at magnitude-frequency relations, athing called a B line which is the slope of the dip [in theEarth’s magnetic field], the correlation you get betweenmagnitude and frequency - some people think those arereally relevant to the structure of the Earth, focalmechanisms and earthquake mechanisms, and otherpeople don’t and dismiss it as being differences inrecording stations. 1.F.149.5cDifferent theoretical perspectivesA number of students argued that conflicts arise because of the differenttheories or ideas that scientists hold.I suppose like you hear different ideas from lecturers youknow, or other people leading in the field have differentideas. 1.K.92.The conflicts arise because two sets of scientists have twosets of different ideas, so they are not in total agreementin their ideas about how a technique works. 1.D.121.The reason why scientists may come to different conclusions was portrayedby a number of students as being due to characteristics of scientists41
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