This was based on what little normative science could be carried out through crossing different animals. It was an accepted fact to many in the animal husbandry business. The first creative breakthrough occurred in 1868 when a young Swiss physician, Freiderich Meischer, isolated something that had not been seen before. This creative scientist isolated nucleic acid, a compound found in both DNA and RNA (Fredholm). This discovery sparked a quest to understand more about nucleic acid and its connection to Mendel's pea experiments just two years earlier. Mendel believed that the traits seen in peas were passed on through "packages" that contained the information (Fredholm). These packages later turned out to be DNA.
These discoveries led to the normal science processes and a quest to learn more about DNA and its connections to selective breeding. However, in mainstream practice, many had not heard of DNA yet, it had not reached the household term status that is has today. In practice, farmers and others in the animal husbandry business continued to produce better animals that same way that they had been doing it for thousands of years. The information and discoveries of Mendel and Miescher had not reached the level of common knowledge. It was not until the late 1940s that normal science began to explore DNA and its connection to life in earnest (Fredholm).
When the concept of DNA and its connection to life were first introduced in the late 1940s, many scientists refused to accept it, simply because it seemed too simple to explain the complexities of life on earth (Fredholm). However, this did not discover creative scientists such as Watson and Crick, who set out to solve the problem of the structure of DNA (Fredholm). They used stick and ball models to explore the double helix structure that is now so common that everyone immediately recognizes it. The normal science process continued with experiments that attempted to use X-rays to see through DNA (Fredholm).
In 1954, Pauling won a Nobel Prize for his work with chemical bonds and the structure of molecules and crystals (Fredholm). This work complimented the work done by Watson and Crick, providing another piece to the puzzle. The normative science portion of the paradigm shift then reached a frenzy, with work going on everywhere to try to understand the processes that were behind the secrets of life itself. However, these concepts, still were not household words.
Knowledge continued to build in regards to our understanding of how chemical bonds formed and combined in DNA to create life. In 1973, Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen used enzymes to cut bacteria and insert a strand of DNA in the gap (Fredholm). This was the first attempt at gene splicing. By this time, the concept of DNA was accepted as the new paradigm in bioengineering. The doubters of the late 1940s were gone and had been completely replaced by the acceptance of DNA as the basis for life. However, it turned out that it is not as "simple" as early critics of the new paradigm claimed.
By the early 1970s, anyone who openly doubted that DNA was the substance of life would be ridiculed and dismissed as a fool. The new paradigm had completely replaced the old one. This supports Kuhn's concept of incommensurability of the old and new paradigm. The old idea that DNA was not the source of life and the concept that DNA was the source of life could not exist at the same time. Since...
Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) was an American scientist, historian and philosopher who wrote a controversial book in 1962 called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and from an early age expressed interest in science, particularly physics; obtaining his BS degree in physics from Harvard in 1943. He stayed at Harvard for his MS and PhD, and credits the period of the late 1940s in helping him
What they had regarded as the most certain of all theories turned out to be in need of serious revision. In reaction, they resolved never again to bestow their faith in scientific truth unconditionally. Skepticism, not certainty, became their watchword. (ibid) The implication of Kuhn's work was that science was seen to be dependent on history. It was no longer superior to historical analysis but could only be understood within the
Research can be added to the paradigms through discovery, without an actual paradigm shift, or the paradigm can be completely replaced through crisis. Scientific revolutions are sometimes so great that it can be said that with the advent of a paradigm shift, the world itself changes. However, as Kuhn (1996) sustains, the world does not actually change every time a paradigm shift occurs, although it can be said that the
If the anomaly resists explanation within the paradigm, the paradigm is altered to include the anomaly. Therefore, to lead to a true crisis and to form the foundation of a scientific revolution, an anomaly must conflict with the basic tenets of the paradigm. In addition, the anomaly cannot be answered by normal research and problem-solving skills within the paradigm, regardless of the modifications. Therefore, it can be said that crises
The concept of the paradigm shift, however, negates the very idea that truth could ever actually be reached. Each paradigm -- which only gives way to another paradigm, leaving all knowledge and understanding ultimately tied to some semblance of foundational assumptions. There is no getting beyond the assumptions, as they are a necessary component (in Kuhn's view) of establishing any sort of causal understanding at all. Science is then, taking
Education Reform A Paradigm Shift in Education Reform Basic ideas are not confined to one branch of science or one area of academic study; if it is a truly worthwhile idea it can be expanded to include many different area of science. The scientific method was at first thought to only be useful to those scientists who knew that they could find definitive answers such as mathematicians and physicists. The hard sciences
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