Science
systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge, and the set of knowledge produced by this system From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Science is what we do to find out about the natural world.[1][2] There are different kinds of science. Natural sciences study nature and the physical world. They include chemistry, biology, geology, astronomy, and physics. Social sciences study people and how societies work. They include, psychology, sociology, and economics. Applied sciences use the things we learn from science to solve problems. They include, engineering and medicine. Science uses mathematics, computer science and logic, which are sometimes called "formal sciences". Science makes observations and experiments. Science produces accurate facts, scientific laws, and theories.[2][3] 'Science' also refers to the large amount of knowledge that has been found using this process.[4][5]
Research uses the scientific method. Scientific research uses hypotheses based on ideas or earlier knowledge, which can be categorized through different topics. Then those hypotheses are tested by experiments. People who study and research science and try to find out everything about it are called scientists. Scientists study things by looking at them very carefully, by measuring them, and by doing experiments and tests. Scientists try to explain why things act the way they do, and predict what will happen.
The history of science is thousands of years old. The beginnings of modern science can be found in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (around 3000–1200 BCE). They developed early ideas in math, astronomy, and medicine. They influenced the Greeks, who tried to explain what happened in our world using natural causes. Later, during India’s Golden Age, more progress was made. This included the creation of the Hindu–Arabic number system.[6][7][8]
After the Western Roman Empire fell during the Early Middle Ages (400–1000 CE), scientific progress in Europe slowed down. But progress started up again during certain periods. In the Islamic world, scholars kept, studied, and made Greek science better during the Islamic Golden Age.[9] Later, when the Byzantine Empire got weaker, its scholars took Greek books to Western Europe, helping start the Renaissance.[10]
From the 10th to 13th centuries, Europe re-learned Greek and Islamic science.[10] This helped cause the scientific revolution in the 16th century. Science began to change a lot. New discoveries removed old ideas.[11][12] The scientific method became more important. By the 19th century, science became more professional and organized.[13] Instead of calling it “natural philosophy”, it was called “natural science”.[14]
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Scientific method
Today, "science" usually refers to a way of pursuing knowledge, not just the knowledge itself. It is mainly about the phenomena of the material world. The Greek works into Western Europe from the 6th to 7th century B.C. revived "Philosophy".[15] In the 17th and 18th centuries scientists increasingly sought to formulate knowledge in terms of laws of nature such as Newton's laws of motion. And during the 19th century, the word "science" became more and more associated with the scientific method itself. It was seen as a way to study the natural world, including physics, chemistry, geology and biology.
It was also in the 19th century that the term scientist was created by William Whewell. He meant it to tell the difference between those who looked for knowledge on nature from those who looked for other types of knowledge.[16]
The scientific method is the name given to the methods used by scientists to find knowledge. The main features of the scientific method are:
- Scientists identify a question or a problem about nature. Some problems are simple, such as "how many legs do flies have?" and some are very deep, such as "why do objects fall to the ground?"
- Next, scientists investigate the problem. They work at it, and collect facts. Sometimes all it takes is to look carefully.
- Some questions cannot be answered directly. Then scientists suggest ideas, and test them out. They do experiments and collect data.
- Eventually, they find what they think is a good answer to the problem. Then they tell people about it.
- Later, other scientists may agree or not agree. They may suggest another answer. They may do more experiments. Anything in science might be revised if we find out the previous solution was not good enough.
An example
A famous example of science in action was the expedition led by Arthur Eddington to Principe Island in Africa in 1919. He went there to record where the stars were around the Sun during a solar eclipse. The observation of where the stars were shown that the apparent star positions close to the Sun were changed. In effect, the light passing the Sun was pulled towards the Sun by gravitation. This confirmed predictions of gravitational lensing made by Albert Einstein in the general theory of relativity, published in 1915. Eddington's observations were considered to be the first solid proof in favour of Einstein's theory.
Practical impacts of scientific research
Discoveries in fundamental science can be world-changing. For example:
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Other features of science
Not everyone completely agrees about how theories should be used or updated. Some philosophers and scientists say that scientific theories are only accepted for the time being. They last as long as they are the best explanation. When theories no longer explain the data, they are removed and replaced. Or, sometimes scientists will make a theory better rather than remove it, or they will keep on using the theory hoping that it will be made better eventually.
Science is a way to get knowledge by getting rid of what is not true.
Scientists must be very careful to make explanations that fit well with what they observe and measure. They compete to provide better explanations. An explanation might be interesting or pleasing, but if it does not agree with what other scientists really see and measure, they will try to find a better explanation.
Before a scientific article is published, other scientists read the article. They decide whether the explanations make sense from the data. This is called peer review. After articles are published, other scientists will also check to see if the same experiments, observations or tests produce the same data again. Peer review and repeating experiments are the only way to be sure the knowledge is correct.
Science makes models of nature, models of our universe, and medicine. There are many different sciences with their own names. However it is not right to say "science says" any one thing. Science is a process, not just the facts and rules believed at one time.
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Some types of science
- Natural sciences
- Biology
- Physical sciences
- Social sciences
- Formal and applied sciences
References
Other websites
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