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Understanding Science 101
A primer on the nature and process of science.

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Our section of teaching resources on the nature and process of science.

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Science in Action

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Cells within cells: An extraordinary claim with extraordinary evidence
Learn how an unlikely idea — that the merging of cells played a prominent role in evolution — overcame strong initial resistance within the scientific community and came to be an accepted part of evolutionary theory.
The structure of DNA: Cooperation and competition
Knowing the structure of DNA has helped push biology into new realms. Find out how the human side of science played out in this remarkable discovery.

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Chart your own course through the process of science with our interactive journaling tool.

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Science talk
Claude Lévi-Strauss
"The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions."
— Anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss

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Understanding Science was developed by the University of California Museum of Paleontology in collaboration with its Advisory Boards.

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Funded by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. EAR-0624436. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

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