Science is an systematic study
about nature. Science is the concerted human effort to understand, or to
understand better, the history of the natural world and how the natural world
works, with observable physical evidence as the basis of that understanding1. It
is done through observation of natural phenomena, and/or through experimentation
that tries to simulate natural processes under controlled conditions. (There
are, of course, more definitions of science.)
Consider some examples. An ecologist observing the territorial behaviors of
bluebirds and a geologist examining the distribution of fossils in an outcrop
are both scientists making observations in order to find patterns in natural
phenomena. They just do it outdoors and thus entertain the general public with
their behavior. An astrophysicist photographing distant galaxies and a
climatologist sifting data from weather balloons similarly are also scientists
making observations, but in more discrete settings.
The examples above are observational science, but there is also experimental
science. A chemist observing the rates of one chemical reaction at a variety of
temperatures and a nuclear physicist recording the results of bombardment of a
particular kind of matter with neutrons are both scientists performing
experiments to see what consistent patterns emerge. A biologist observing the
reaction of a particular tissue to various stimulants is likewise experimenting
to find patterns of behavior. These folks usually do their work in labs and wear
impressive white lab coats, which seems to mean they make more money too.
The word science comes from the Latin "scientia," meaning knowledge.
How do we define science? According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, the
definition of science is "knowledge attained through study or practice," or
"knowledge covering general truths of the operation of general laws, esp. as
obtained and tested through scientific method [and] concerned with the physical
world."
What does that really mean? Science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge.
This system uses observation and experimentation to describe and explain natural
phenomena. The term science also refers to the organized body of knowledge
people have gained using that system. Less formally, the word science often
describes any systematic field of study or the knowledge gained from it.
What is the purpose of science? Perhaps the most general description is that the
purpose of science is to produce useful models of reality.
Most scientific investigations use some form of the scientific method. You can
find out more about the scientific method here.
Science as defined above is sometimes called pure science to differentiate it
from applied science, which is the application of research to human needs.
Fields of science are commonly classified along two major lines:
- Natural sciences, the study of the natural world, and
- Social sciences, the systematic study of human behavior and society.
The critical commonality is that all these people are making and recording
observations of nature, or of simulations of nature, in order to learn more
about how nature, in the broadest sense, works. We'll see below that one of
their main goals is to show that old ideas (the ideas of scientists a century
ago or perhaps just a year ago) are wrong and that, instead, new ideas may
better explain nature.