SCIENCE: A Way of Knowing
I. The Role of Science:
A. Making Choices
1. What gasoline to buy
2. What shampoo is best for my hair
3. What pain relievers work for me
4. Apply same thought process when
we want to learn about a star or a
living cell.
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SCIENCE: A Way of Knowing
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B. Why study science?
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Newspaper headlines – weather, environmental issues,
earthquakes
Powerful tool to understand how our world works and
how we interact with our physical surroundings
Represents our best hope for predicting and coping with
natural disasters, curing diseases, discovering new
technologies
Better prepared to incorporate these advances in your
professional life and better understand process by
which such advances are made
Consumer, tax payer, living being, parent
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SCIENCE: A Way of Knowing
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The Scientific Method
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Observation
• Plato believed that only through the mind can we arrive at
reason and truth
• Observing nature without manipulating it (ex.
Astronomer)
• Experiment – manipulating some aspect of nature and
observing the outcome (ex. Chemist)
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Identifying Patterns and Regularities
• Repeated observations – start to recognize patterns
• Results of observations summarized in mathematical form
• Ex. Falling object
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SCIENCE: A Way of Knowing
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Mathematics, the Language of Science
• Concise language that allows them to communicate their results
in compact form and allows them to make precise predictions
about expected outcomes of expts. Or observations
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Hypothesis and Theory
• Hypothesis – educated guess
• Theory – description of the world that covers large number of
phenomena and has met many observational and experimental
tests
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Prediction and Testing
• A guess about how a particular system will behave followed by
observation to see if the system behaved as expected within a
specified range of situations
• Every theory and law of nature is subject to change, based
on new observations
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SCIENCE: A Way of Knowing
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The Scientific Method in Operation
• Endless cycle – observations lead to hypothesis which lead
to more observations
• Scientists are not required to observe with an “open mind”
• There is no right place to enter the cycle
• Observations and experiments must be reported in a way
that results can be verified (reproducible)
• Cycle is continuous
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The Ongoing Process of Science: Biodiversity
• Biodiversity – number of different species that coexist at a
given place
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SCIENCE: A Way of Knowing
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Science in the Making: Dimitri Mendeleev and the
Periodic Table
• Chemistry professor at Technological Institute of St.
Petersburg, Russia, developed the periodic table in 1869
• Arranged list of elements (63) by increasing atomic
weights
• He realized that elements with similar chemical properties
appeared at regular or periodic intervals.
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The Science of Life: William Harvey and the Blood’s
circulation
• He gave us our current picture of the pattern of
circulation.
• Blood is pumped from the heart to the body through
arteries and returned to heart through veins.
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SCIENCE: A Way of Knowing
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Other Ways of Knowing
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Different Kinds of Questions
• The scientific method is not the only way to answer
questions.
• What is the meaning of life?
• Is there a God?
• What career should I choose?
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Pseudoscience
• A kind of inquiry falling in the realm of belief or
digma which includes subjects that cannot be
proved or disproved.
• Ex: UFO’s, Astrology, ESP
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SCIENCE: A Way of Knowing
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Science by the Numbers: Astrology
• Belief that positions of objects in the sky at a given
time (ex. Person’s birth) determine a person’s
future.
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The Organization of Science
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The Divisions of Science
• Field researchers – observe nature at work
• Experimentalists – manipulate nature with controlled
expts.
• Theorists – spend their time imagining universes
that might exist.
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SCIENCE: A Way of Knowing
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The Branches of Science
• Physics – search for laws that describe matter,
energy, forces, motion, heat, light
• Chemistry – study of atoms in combination
• Astronomy – study of stars, planets and other
objects in space
• Geology – study of origin, evolution and present
state of earth
• Biology – study of living systems
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The Web of knowledge
• Intricate spider web
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SCIENCE: A Way of Knowing
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Basic Research, Applied Research,
Technology
• Basic Research – finding out how the
world works; in knowledge for its own sake
• Applied Research – develop technology
in which they apply results of science to
specific commercial or industrial goals
• R & D – ideas developed by applied
research translated into practical systems
• Technology transfer – large-scale
production
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SCIENCE: A Way of Knowing
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Technology:SETI@Home
• Search for Extraterrestial Intelligence
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Funding for Science
• Table 1-3
• Federal budget for R & D in 2002 was 100 billion
dollars
• Scientists seeking for research submit grant
proposals
• A proposal has about a 10% to 40% chance of being
successful depending on the subject
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SCIENCE: A Way of Knowing
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Communication Among Scientists
• Scientific meetings
• Journals, publications
• Scientists submit papers to publish results
of their research
• Journal editor sends manuscript to a panel of
reviewers which are scientists that are experts in
that field
• Usually send back with a list of modifications and
corrections
• This process is known as peer review.
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