How do we acquire knowledge in the natural science?

BY chance
One of the ways to acquire knowledge in the natural science is the
method of serendipity/ by accident. What this really means is that
someone typically, a scientist with a hypothesis who has conducted an
experiment has by chance discovered something, or the scientist was
fortunate enough to prove what he hypothesized by luck/chance.

Arno and Robert

Wilson were suing
an antenna to get
signals from the
milky way galaxy.
Instead of small
discrete signals
that they were
hoping to hear,
they actually heard
a constant loud
hum no matter
what way they
turned the antenna.
After checking the
equipment, ruling
out military
communications and the pigeions that they thought were making the
humming sound, they two researchers still heard the noise. It turned out
they were listening to residueal radiation from the big bang.

Ninth-century Chinese
alchemists made an
explosive discovery in their
quest to find an elixir for
eternal life. They found out
the hard way that mixing salt
peter, sulfur, and charcoal is
not a recipe for immortality;
it makes gunpowder.
Method of Induction
Inductive reasoning : going from particular to general
Deductive reasoning: going from general to particular
This method involves taking something specific and then generalizing it.
For eg: drivers drive rash in Delhi specific statement. When converted to
a general statement this becomes, drivers in delhi have driven wildly in
the past, so I must be careful today.

Or giving an example from the natural science: metal A and metal B

expand when heated, so it means that ALL metals will expand when
heated.

This method can be useful in gaining knowledge in the natural science if

there are sufficient number of observations, there are varying
circumstances, if there are extraordinary claims made there should be
more evidence.

But, this method may not be useful because, there are always exceptions,
(exception for expansion of metal when heated is germanium, which
contracts on low temperatures), theres always hasty generalization which
is a fallacy, and there is always a confirmation bias involved: we tend to
believe only the evidence that supports our belief, while ignoring the
evidence that goes against our theory.

Method of falsification
1. Make a hypothesis
2. State condition under which hypothesis would be disproved or can
be falsified
3. Test hypothesis with the aim of testifying it (experiment)
4. If hypothesis is not falsified by the experiment, then it can be
accepted as a theory, if it is falsified then it cant and the hypothesis
must be corrected

Advantages of this theory

- Certainty: if the hypothesis is falsified it is not scientific and this
method proves its certainty of not being scientific
- Scientific Relevance: this method can distinguish between scientific
valid hypothesis and non-scientific hypothesis. A hypothesis that
cannot be falsified cannot be scientific. For example, the
statement/hypothesis: there will, or will not be earthquakes under
the Pacific Ocean in June.