The Scientific Method and The Rigorous Science Behind The Perfect Cookie.

Baking is a science.

I'm sure many of you have heard that phrase before, but perhaps you never really understood how or why it's true. After all baking is baking and science is science, so how could they be the same? Science is everywhere and we use it every day, even if we don't know it! Let's figure this out together. Welcome back fellow learners! On your marks! Get Set! Bak...er...Science!

Last time we talked about our brains. They are excellent at creating patterns to help normalize what we experience, but this doesn't necessarily mean that it's all fact. Together, we established what science is and why it's important. Remember that science is a process; a way of thinking that humanity has used as a means to explain and explore the world around us. It's not perfect, but the reason it works is because we are able to constantly test principles, theories and concepts for their validity. Therefore, by using science we can come together to solves life's biggest mysteries.

But how do we actually do science? After all science itself is such a broad term and really refers to a collection of many different fields of study! Well to properly do science, it all starts with a question based on an observation.

Now it's not just any question, it's all about asking the right kinds of questions and using the right steps to actually answer them. I guess you could say that there's some sort of...method to it...like some kind of....scientific method.

I'll see myself out.

Luckily, that totally exists! Let's check out the basic structure of the scientific method in the graphic below.

credit to sciencebuddies.org for generating this awesome graphic.

Ask a Question

Now this doesn't have to be some profound universe altering question. It is as simple as some W's and H's. Where do dolphins go when they sleep? What do deep sea squid eat? How do sea jellies sting things? What happens if I add toffee to my chocolate chip recipe?

Starting to get it?

Do Background Research

Once you have your question, you want to check to see if it has been answered already. If not, you check if anyone has taken steps in solving that question and to learn from them. Go online or check out libraries for some information.

Construct a Hypothesis

Once you have your research, you make an educated guess, or a hypothesis about your question. Even though we call it a guess it's more of a prediction of what you think will happen. A good hypothesis is testable, clear, simple, and defines what variables you are testing. Think "cause and effect." The easiest way to do that is with an If/Then statement.

If ______ (this happens) Then _____ (this should happen.)

It doesn't have to follow this exact structure but this is a very simple framework to set up a solid hypothesis.

P.s. Check out sciencebuddies.org for some examples of good vs bad hypothesis.

Test with an experiment

A good experiment has some simple qualities:

1) It tests your hypothesis

2) It is repeatable, meaning that other people can do this experiment.

3) It contains a large enough sample to be an accurate representation. Example: You're testing how many people have blue eyes. You survey two people and one of them has blue eyes and the other has brown eyes. The result is then 50% of people have blue eyes, but we know this not to be true as blue eyes are a non-dominant trait, so this is bad experiment due to a small sampling size.

4) It's fair. Meaning you test only one factor at a time. Example: you are testing how adding egg shells to soil to see how it affects plant growth but you also increase water and sunlight availability. With that set up it is impossible to know what exactly affects plant growth.

5) You compare against a "control" or "baseline." You can test all you want but if you have nothing to compare it to then your conclusions will probably be inaccurate.

Analyze your data

If your experiment is working (meaning you haven't had to troubleshoot and rework things) then you've collected data to analyze. Typically this is where some statistics come into play to make sense of all the data.

Draw your conclusions

Based on your results, your experiment will either have support for your hypothesis, or it will not have support for your hypothesis. This is a very real possibility and happens ALL THE TIME. This is so important because not having support for a hypothesis is just as key to the scientific process as having support is. Why? Because now you are actually still closer to the truth by ruling out different possibilities. Even if your hypothesis is "wrong" you are still one step closer to finding out what is "right." It's important to follow up with this and ask an updated question, now with the information you discovered in mind.

Communicate your results:

Typically a scientific paper will be published that contains all this information and will be up for peer review. This means that other scientists will be able to replicate your test to see if your conclusions are accurate. By doing this we can ensure that proper scientific methods are being done and proper information is discovered. For that reason, if a scientist is discredited that means that they were doing bad science and their information shouldn't be trusted. It's not something that happens often, so when it does it's pretty much guaranteed that they're wrong. This applies to theories that are discredited as well.

*cough*

There you have it! In its simplest form this is how you "do science." Now of course this framework is tweaked upon to match what you're studying but if you look at any scientific article they all pretty much follow this format. Not as complicated as you may have thought huh? Well kind of. Very rarely do scientific experiments go perfectly, especially if you're studying something as hard to study as the ocean or space, so sometimes it can get pretty messy. Also, unfortunately, so much of scientific work is tied to funding and some great questions can't be asked because there isn't money to study them or people aren't willing to fund certain projects. When that happens then we are actually hurting the scientific process because it encourages researchers to try and study "the next big thing" to entice people for funding. It's important to remember that all knowledge gained is important knowledge because it helps us get closer and closer to the truth.

If we only pursue "the next big thing," and claim that some things aren't worth studying then we inevitably miss out on potentially key information. I'm drawn to this amazing comic " The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D." by Matt Might, which shows you that even the people who are leading cutting edge scientific research only do it a rather narrow specialized scope. (It also very easily shows that it's impossible for people to know everything so if anyone claims they do, you know they're lying.)

Well let's take a step back and go back to our phrase "baking is a science" and take a look at how science and the scientific method can be applied everywhere. Imagine a baker from 400 years ago.

This baker noticed that whenever they added or subtracted eggs, the cookies turned out differently. (observation)

The baker asks around to see if anyone else has noticed this but no one has an answer. (research)

The baker asks themselves "how does the addition or subtraction of eggs affect my cookies?" (question)

The baker says to themself, "Hmm, if I subtract eggs, then I will get dry cookies." (hypothesis)

To test this, the baker makes 50 cookies without any eggs and 50 cookies with eggs. Everything is the same except for the eggs. (experiment)

After checking each cookie the baker learns that the 100% of the 50 cookies without any eggs are very dry. (data analysis)

At this point the baker concludes that eggs help make cookies tender and moist. (conclusion)

The baker shares this information with other bakers and they all come to the same conclusion. (communicates their results)

The baker can stop here with this conclusion, but now that the baker knows that no eggs = dry cookies they have a follow up question! "What happens if I add more eggs?" With that the hunger for knowledge (and cookies) continues. Science and human knowledge takes a step forward.

Mmmm mouth-watering science....

Now I hope this helped explain the scientific method clearly and I'm curious how many of you were practicing the scientific method without actually realizing it? It's so key that this method allows for testing and repeatability with a collaboration of other scientists. If it didn't and we trusted a single person then we would almost definitely get inaccurate results.

The whole point of this article and this entire blog is that science isn't something that is reserved for a certain group of people. Believe it or not, we can all take part. You, me, bakers, everybody. It all just starts with a curious mind, a method, and some work.

P.S If you're hungry for more knowledge and want to do some of your own research, stick around for next week's post on how to identify sources of information and how to read a scientific article! Thanks everyone, and let's keep learning together.

P.P.S If y'all are hungry for actual great chocolate chip cookies and science then follow my boy J. Kenji Lopez-Alt at Serious Eats for a true scientific approach to cooking. He does proper experiments and everything!

Up next: Where can you find scientific papers? Tips on choosing proper sources of information.