How Science Really Works — Module Assessment

Question 1

In modern academic science, what is the typical basic working unit?

Accepted Answer

A research group of a lead investigator, postdocs, students, and technicians, funded largely by competitive grants

Answer

A single independent scientist funded for life by their university

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A government committee that assigns discoveries to individuals

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A journal editorial board that performs the experiments

Question 2

Which statement best captures the role of 'priority' (being first to publish) in science?

Accepted Answer

It brings real credit and rewards but can also encourage racing and selective reporting

Answer

It guarantees the first result is the correct one

Answer

It is irrelevant to how scientists are judged today

Answer

It only matters in big-science collaborations

Question 3

Which best describes the relationship between science and technology?

Accepted Answer

A two-way loop: understanding enables tools, and new tools enable new understanding

Answer

A one-way pipeline in which pure science always precedes any technology

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Two unrelated activities that rarely influence each other

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Technology always comes first and science merely records it

Question 4

The invention of the transistor at Bell Labs in 1947 best illustrates which point?

Accepted Answer

That curiosity-driven basic physics can lead directly to world-changing applied technology

Answer

That applied research never depends on earlier basic science

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That only large government collaborations can produce breakthroughs

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That new technology always harms society

Question 5

A city is deciding whether to build a new highway. Which part of that decision can science, on its own, settle?

Accepted Answer

How much the highway would change local air pollution and average travel times.

Answer

Whether the convenience of drivers matters more than the neighborhood the road would displace.

Answer

Whether the project is fair to the families who would have to move.

Answer

Whether the city ought to prioritize cars over public transit.

Question 6

What did David Hume point out in his "is–ought" observation?

Accepted Answer

Writers often slide from statements of fact to statements about what ought to be done without justifying the leap.

Answer

Moral claims can always be proven false by a careful enough experiment.

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Scientific facts and moral duties are exactly the same kind of statement.

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Values should be ignored whenever they conflict with data.

Question 7

According to Kuhn, the difference between normal science and a paradigm shift is that:

Accepted Answer

Normal science refines within an accepted framework while a paradigm shift replaces the framework itself

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Normal science replaces the whole framework while a paradigm shift only adjusts details

Answer

Both describe the same everyday process under different names

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A paradigm shift happens whenever a single new experiment succeeds

Question 8

Wegener's continental-drift hypothesis was mainly rejected by geologists for decades because:

Accepted Answer

He offered no plausible mechanism for how continents could move

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The matching fossils across oceans turned out to be fake

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Plate tectonics had already been proven false

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He never published the idea in any book

Question 9

A report states: "The evidence shows the new dam would cut flood risk by half, so the town must build it." Which part is a value judgement rather than a scientific finding?

Accepted Answer

The claim that the town must build it

Answer

The estimate that flood risk would be cut by half

Answer

The measurement of past flood levels

Answer

The uncertainty range attached to the estimate

Question 10

Which statement best describes scientific consensus as discussed in this lesson?

Accepted Answer

The convergence of many independent lines of evidence

Answer

A majority vote taken among all scientists

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The opinion of the most senior researcher in a field

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Any position that no scientist has publicly disputed

Question 11

A headline says a food "doubles your risk" of a disease. Which single piece of information most changes how alarming this is?

Accepted Answer

The absolute (baseline) risk that the doubling applies to

Answer

The name of the journal that published it

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How many people shared the article online

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Whether the headline uses the word "causes"

Question 12

The 2014 BMJ study by Sumner and colleagues found that exaggeration in health news most often:

Accepted Answer

Was already present in the universities' own press releases

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Was invented by social media users after publication

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Came only from tabloid newspapers

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Was corrected before the news was published

Question 13

You believe a new morning routine makes you more focused. Which approach best reflects thinking like a scientist?

Accepted Answer

Define a focus measure and compare routine days against a fair set of non-routine days, expecting the belief could fail.

Answer

Notice the days you feel sharp and credit the routine for them.

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Commit to the routine and reinterpret any bad day as caused by something else.

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Ask friends whether they think the routine sounds like a good idea.

Question 14

What did Charles Darwin's "golden rule," described in his autobiography, actually involve?

Accepted Answer

Immediately recording observations and facts that were opposed to his own theory, so he would not forget them.

Answer

Publishing a theory only once no evidence could ever contradict it.

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Trusting a striking result the first time he saw it, without repetition.

Answer

Refusing to consider ideas that conflicted with his general conclusions.