Question

Scientists often propose and reject a variety of hypotheses before they design a single test. Discuss with your class which of the following statements would be useful as scientific hypotheses and could be investigated using scientific proce- dures. Give the reason for each answer by stating whether it could possibly be falsified and what factors are measurable and controllable. 1. A high-fat diet in pregnant women may increase chances of ADHD in offspring 2. Living on a farm protects children from developing asthma and hayfever. 3. The Y chromosome in modern humans is the same as the Y chromosome in Neanderthals. 4. Genetically modified foods have caused an increase in gluten intolerance. 5. "Snake oil" from pythons can be used to build heart muscle.

Answer 1

1. A high-fat diet in pregnant women may increase the chances of ADHD in offspring is a valid hypothesis because it can be falsified. We can test this by controlling diet and testing whether there any relative change in the proportion of progenies who have ADHD. But the difficulty is it takes time to understand and test whether the offspring has ADHD or not. But still, This hypothesis can be tested experimentally.

2. This can be considered as a scientific hypothesis since we can't even falsify it. The statement is way general so can't be tested

3. We can test that with the help of molecular phylogenetics since it is a falsifiable hypothesis. We can get all the data from a sequenced Y chromosome of Neanderthal man and modern man and we can directly compare to test it.

4. This statement is also falsifiable and can be tested by varying genetically modified food intake and observing whether it cause Gluten intolerance or not

5. This statement is not falsifiable and not can't be tested experimentally  

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