Research can broadly be divided into three categories: 1. Experimental research: Form a hypothesis. Create datapoints by some process: could be mixing chemical

Research can broadly be divided into three categories: 1. Experimental research: Form a hypothesis. Create datapoints by some process: could be mixing chemicals in test tubes, giving patients enrolled in a study a medication, pointing a telescope at the sky, or going out to the Amazon to count bugs. Use those datapoints to confirm or refute the hypothesis. 2. Retrospective research: Form a hypothesis. Use data that already exists and is archived somewhere to confirm or refute the hypothesis. 3. Descriptive research: No hypothesis. Look at existing data and/or published research and comment on trends or the patterns that exist therein. "Experimental" covers everything and anything you would do in a wet lab. You don't need a wet lab to do research of types 2 or 3 - you can do that in an office or at home. That said, I don't believe we have any confirmation that they used the word experimental in the actual order.