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ACT Science 1.9 Research Summary Passage. If the air was the same near the bees that were dancing and the bees that weren't, what would the scientists have to conclude?

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Transcript

00:03

Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by sticky hair.

00:07

And what creates sticky hair?

00:09

Honey combs.

00:11

Here’s a passage about an experiment performed on the communication of honey bees.

00:21

If the air was the same near the bees that

00:23

were dancing and the bees that weren't, what would the scientists have to conclude?

00:28

Here are your potential answers…

00:34

Well, we know how the samples turned out—

00:35

the air was different on the dance floor than it was in other parts of the hive.

00:39

This question is asking us something interesting, though: If the samples of air looked the same,

00:44

what would that mean?

00:46

Option A—There is no chemical signal generated by the waggle dance.

00:50

That wouldn’t necessarily be true.

00:52

An absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence; it just means we didn’t pick it up.

00:57

Option B—Both air samples contain the waggle dance chemicals.

01:01

We can’t confirm that. With two similar samples, we can’t definitively tell if they

01:05

both contain waggle dance chemicals, or if neither of them do.

01:09

The great thing about the actual results is how they showed clear evidence.

01:13

Two similar samples just won’t cut it.

01:15

Option C—They could not find evidence of

01:18

a chemical airborne signal generated by the waggle dance.

01:20

Hey, now THAT sounds scientific!

01:23

“Could not find evidence” is very important;

01:26

it’s simply declaring the result of their experiment. It’s not making any claims about the bees,

01:30

their dancing, their smells, or their behavior.

01:32

It’s simply saying, “We didn’t find evidence,” which would be absolutely correct.

01:37

Just to be sure, let’s take a look at D…

01:39

“The bees must be singing instead of dancing,

01:42

because there’s no chemical signal.” That’s absolutely not true.

01:46

You can’t suggest that something is singing just because it doesn’t smell,

01:50

unless you’re talking about Uncle Ronnie, who is always singing in the shower…

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