Laboratory experiments are controlled empirical methods conducted in artificial or semi-artificial settings to isolate, manipulate, and measure specific variables under reproducible conditions. They typically involve systematic variation of one or more independent variables while holding extraneous factors constant, enabling causal inference about their effects on dependent variables. Experimental designs may include control groups, randomization, blinding, and standardized protocols to minimize bias and confounding. Laboratory experiments are widely used across natural and social sciences to test hypotheses, validate theoretical models, calibrate instruments, and generate high-precision data, often serving as a precursor to field studies or in vivo applications where environmental control is more limited.
MIT researchers have developed a new theoretical framework for studying the mechanisms of treatment interactions. Their approach allows scientists to efficiently estimate how combinations of treatments will affect a group ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jul 16, 2025
0
16
Rie Natsume and her collaborators have recently developed an innovative and cost-effective method for generating rats that inherit traits from embryonic stem (ES) cells. Unlike mouse ES cells, rat ES cells have unsuccessfully ...
Biotechnology
Jul 7, 2025
0
14
NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley houses a unique laboratory: the Airborne Sensor Facility (ASF). The engineers at the ASF are responsible for building, maintaining, and operating numerous instruments that get ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 12, 2025
0
0
Scientists and engineers at the University of Nottingham have measured the stiffness of space rock for the first time. Many meteorites are made of crystalline materials, formed under exotic conditions that cannot be replicated ...
Planetary Sciences
May 16, 2025
0
16
Science is essential as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency carries out its mission to protect human health and the environment.
Environment
Apr 7, 2025
0
0
The instrument enclosure of NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor was prepared for critical environmental tests inside the historic Chamber A at the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston ...
Space Exploration
Mar 27, 2025
0
0
For the first time, a team of researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) quantified and rigorously studied the effect of metal strength on accurately modeling coupled metal/high explosive (HE) experiments, ...
General Physics
Feb 3, 2025
0
10
What does an ancient lava tube in the Canary Islands have in common with space exploration?
Space Exploration
Jan 30, 2025
0
2
The first human tissue samples from Oxford's Space Innovation Lab (SIL) have been launched and are on their way to the International Space Station, where they will be used to study the effects of space microgravity on the ...
Space Exploration
Nov 5, 2024
0
11
Testing is one of the unsung steps in the engineering process. Talk to any product development engineer, and they will tell you how big of a milestone passing "V&V"—or verification and validation—testing is.
Space Exploration
Oct 23, 2024
0
0
