Help Please In 1887 a strange nerve disease attacked the people in the Dutch East Indies. The disease was beriberi. Symptoms of the disease included weakness and loss of appetite, victims often died of heart failure. Scientists thought the disease might be caused by bacteria. They injected chickens with bacteria from the blood of a group of chickens that were not injected with bacteria. One of the scientists, Dr. Eijkman, designed a new experiment based on his own observations. Before the experiment, all the chickens had eaten wholegrain rice, but during the experiment, the chickens were fed polished rice. Dr. Eijkman researched this interesting case and found that polished rice lacked thiamine, a vitamin necessary for good health. 1. State the question or problem that Dr. Eijkman investigated. 2. What was the original hypothesis? 3. What was the manipulated (independent) variable and the responding (dependent) variable? 4. Write a statement that summarizes the results of the experiment. 5. How would Dr. Eijkman test his new hypothesis?

When conducting an experiment, you need to have a question or a problem such as what is the cause of the disease. Then, you need to state a hypothesis to make a prediction, like the disease was caused by bacteria. You also need to define the variables involved in the experiment: independent -such as the infected blood used to inject chickens-, dependent -like the chickens response to the infected blood-. Then, according to the results -for instance, the experimental and the controlled groups were equally affected by the disease-, you can accept or reject your original hypothesis. During the experiment there will surge new questions to answer, and new hypothesis to test. In the exposed example, for instance, Dr. Eijkman can test his new hypothesis by injecting bacteria to a group of animals fed with wholegrain rice, and to another group of animals fed with polished rice.    

When conducting an experiment, there are different aspects to consider, such as the question that drives to the reseach, the hypothesis, theoretical framework, variables involved -independent, dependent, and controll-, methodology, study groups, data analisys, among others.        

You need to consider,

• Definition and problem statement. The question for which there is not an answer yet.

• Hypothesis formulation. A hypothesis is a scientific conjecture, not verified, that requires corroboration.

• Data collection and analysis. This step involves testing the observations.

• Results

• Verification of hypothesis. This step involves the deriving of the working hypothesis.

• Discussion and Conclusion.

Available data:

1. The first question made was What is the real cause of the beriberi disease?

2. The original hypothesis was that the disease was caused by a bacteria, and if so, healthy chickens injected with infected blood, would also get the disease.

3. The manipulated or independent variable was the infected blood used to inject the chickens. The responding or dependent variable was the reaction or response of the chickens to the injected blood.    

4. Results: Both, the experimental and the controlled group, were equally affected by the disease. Even when the controlled group was not injected with the affected blood, it got the disease too.

5. Dr. Eijkman new hypothesis is that chickens fed with polished rice will get sick because of the thiamine lack. He can test this new hypothesis by injecting bacteria to a group of animals that are being fed with wholegrain rice that has all the necessary vitamins, and injecting bacteria to another group of animals being fed with polished rice that lacks  thiamine. If the new hypothesis is correct, the first wholegrain rice group should resist the bacteria attack, while the second polished rice group should get the disease.

Related link: link

Beri-beri is a disease resulting from a lack of vitamin B1 in the human body. This condition occurs, in particular, in people who eat mainly white rice (rice without shell) and some other types of grain crops. In modern society, the disease is rare due to the fact that a sufficient amount of vitamins comes from food.

Vitamin B1 contributes to the normal course of carbohydrate and fat metabolism. Its deficiency leads to the accumulation of pyruvic acid in the human blood and its increased concentration in the nervous system. The consequence of such a biochemical metabolic disorder is damage to the nervous system ("dry beriberi"), as well as damage to the cardiovascular system ("wet beriberi").

Learn more about this disease in link

the correct answer is 2 and 4