Over the years I have talked with many scientists and read what many others have written.  When I have had the chance I have asked them if there are any ideas that are so basic that scientists use them without necessarily thinking about them as part of the process of science.
 

Causality     Things happen for understandable reasons           Even the quantum realm has rules Measurement     If it can't be measured its not good science     You need a scale of Space, Time, Mass, Response           or whatever it is that you are studying Categorization     Recognizing Same and Different             In Concepts and Events as well as physical items     Sorting     Naming Mathematics     Logic and Sets     Algebra and Geometry     Calculus (All Types)     Modern Math     Games     Statistics, Probability      Chaos  Models     Mental      Physical      Mathematical     Analogy

Successive Approximation     Iteration     Make a guess, Improve it, Refine it again     Use it to solve problems Open Mindedness     Open to new ideas     New ways of examining old ideas     Skepticism Closed Mindedness     Skepticism     The physical world  Repeatability     If it doesn't work the same way twice it isn't good science     Testable, Verifiable Know Your Tools     Understand how they work     Recognize Their Limitations Communication     Tell, your understanding of the way things work     Listen,  try to understand the way others see the idea

They also find that it is fun to discover how the universe or any small part of it works

As I get the time I plan to expand/explain what some of the ideas above mean to me.  When I do I will provide links from this page.

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