Name:______________________________ Period: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Date:________________
The Development
of Science
Long ago, when civilization was in its early stages, man lived in fear and ignorance. He believed
that spirits and other supernatural agents were responsible for storms, diseases, and all events which took
place in this world. Beliefs based upon fear and ignorance are now generally called superstitions.
As the years passed, man investigated the world around him and began to accumulate knowledge
based on facts, consequently, he found that the superstitions he believed in were false. For example, it
was once widely believed that if horns of a bull were buried in an upright position, bees would be created
in the horns. But when man carefully studied the habits of bees, he found that the bees came from eggs
buried by other bees. Science therefore is, knowledge based on observation, experimentation, and
reasoning.
Science may be defined as the opposite of superstition; it is a body of knowledge based not on
fear and ignorance, but rather on close and careful observation and experimentation. Science may also be
defined as the sum total of man’s knowledge of the world around him.
An important aspect of science is the scientific way of thinking. This special way of thinking
involves tackling problems in a well-organized, common-sense fashion. Scientific thinking not only
helps to solve technical problems of our modern age, but also produces new ideas and concepts.
As the amount of scientific knowledge continues to increase, it is impossible for any one person
to master all of this vast accumulation of knowledge. As a result, separate branches of science have been
developed. Among these are:
 Biology: The study of living things.
 Chemistry: The study of the structure and properties of matter.
 Physics: The study of the interactions of matter and energy.
 Geology: The study of the Earth, its atmosphere, the oceans, and the relationship of the Earth to
the universe.
 Ecology: The study of how organisms interact with each other and their environment.
 Genetics: The scientific study of genes and heredity.
 Anatomy: The study of the internal structures of various organisms, including humans.
 Earth Science: The study of the Earth, its atmosphere, the oceans, and the relationship of the
Earth to the Universe.
As our scientific knowledge continues to grow, it becomes increasingly difficult to draw sharp
Lines between the various sciences. We read the achievements of biochemists, geophysicists, physical
physicists, and other scientists. While the separate branches of science still persist, the method, of
classification will probably undergo changes in the near future.
The greatest advances in scientific knowledge has come from people who possessed the traits of
curiosity and imagination. A scientist must be curios about how things happened, and they must gave the
imagination to invent possible explanations. But an explanation is only the beginning. A scientist will not
be satisfied until all the available evidence has been examined and experimented with, and even then
there is a chance than an error was made or other evidence had not yet been discovered. Alterations will
be made as evidence suggests that errors were made.
Scientific discoveries are seldom due to the work of a single individual. Rather, most scientific
advances grow out of the numerous discoveries made by scientists if an earlier day. Sir Isaac Newton, a
great English scientist, once said that he was only able to achieve what he did because he was standing on
the shoulder of giants. It was only through the work of other great scientists who came before him that his
own discovers were made possible.
You are a scientist! Does that statement surprise you? If it does, it’s probably because you don’t
understand exactly what a scientist is. But if you have ever observed the colors formed in a drop of oil in
a puddle or watched a fire burn, you were acting like a scientist. You are also a scientist when you watch
wave breaking on the shore or lightning bolts darting through the night sky. Whenever you observe the
world around you, you are acting like a scientist.
Scientists observe the world around them, just as you do. For that reason, whenever you make an
observation you are acting like a scientist. But scientists do more than just observe. The word science
comes from the Latin scire, which means “to know.” So science is more than just observation. Scientist
not only observe, but they wonder what makes thing the way they are And they attempt to find answers to
their questions.
The universe around you and inside of you is really a collection of countless mysteries. It’s the
job of scientist to solve these mysteries. The goal of science is to understand the world around us.
Using facts they have gathered, scientists propose explanations for the events they observe, then they
preform experiments to test their explanations. Based in all this information we are going to define
science as:
Knowledge based on observation, experimentation, and reasoning.
The application of scientific knowledge to solve practical problems and to make new inventions
is called technology.
Cracking the Code
How is solving a cryptogram similar to what a scientist may do? Try crack this code, which conceals a
definition of science written by the 19th century French scientist and mathematician Jules-Henri Poincare.
HXRVMXV RH YFROG FK DRGS UZXGH, ZH Z SLFHV RH DRGS HGLMVH. YFG Z
XLOOVXGRLM LU UZXGH RH ML NLIV Z HXRVMXV GSZM Z SVZK LU HGLMVH
RH Z SLFHV.
KLRMXZIV, 1885
To help you, here are two decoded words
YV HXRVMGRURX
BE SCIENTIFIC
Write your decoded answer below: