The Nature and Characteristics of Science
Science is a Uniquely Human Method of Determining Natural Truths
Science is a uniquely human enterprise crafted to gather understanding of the natural world at all levels – from the bizarre realm of subatomic particles to the molecular level of the cell and the mechanisms of inheritance to the complex ecological interactions that shape the biosphere to the vastness of the universe.
Science cannot and should not address the realms of the mythical, the imaginary, the metaphysical, or the spiritual. For too long people accepted the musings of authority figures as truth. Often the more bizarre the speculation, the more eager people were (and, unfortunately, many still are) to believe it. The sole aim of science is to classify, understand, and unify the objects and phenomena of the material world. By using a combination of accurate observation and experimentation, logic and intuition, and the occasional fortunate happenstance of serendipity, scientists seek to understand the rules that govern all levels of the natural universe.
To understand and fully appreciate the art and craft of science in general and the particulars of any specific branch of science, one must understand the nature and characteristics of science, how scientists think, how they develop those amazing tests known as experiments, and how they analyze experiments and set the reliability of the data gathered from them.
The Nature of Science
What is science? The uniquely human enterprise called science is a method crafted to investigate and accumulate facts, data, and “truths” of the natural world.
Investigation. Science is an ongoing and never-ending search (investigation) for the truth. However, this search must always be tempered by the realization that (1) scientists might not recognize the truth when they see it and that (2) what is regarded as the truth must always be subject to change.
“Our ignorance is sobering and boundless. Indeed, it is preciselythe staggering progress of the natural sciences which constantly opens our eyes anew to our ignorance. With each step forward, withproblem which we solve, we not only discover new and unsolved problems, but we also discover that where we believed that we were standing on firm and safe ground, are in truth, insecure and in a state of flux.”
(Karl Popper)
Investigative science must be grounded and guided by the understanding that there are not and never can be any absolute scientific “truths.”
Accumulation. Science is also a body of knowledge obtained (accumulation) by exacting individuals (scientists) using precise and reliable methods. The knowledge (truths) accumulated through investigation are assimilated into the science knowledge base. The sheer amount of scientific knowledge is staggering and humankind continues to accumulate ever more of this knowledge at breath-taking speed. (Visualize the volume of the body of knowledge of science as an upside down pyramid growing upward and outward at an incredible pace.)
Unfortunately, science is often taught and learned solely as accumulation with prodigious amounts of information and terminology to be memorized and usually quickly forgotten. Presenting such a myopic view as the entirety of science is a detriment to student understanding and appreciation of the true nature of science. As society becomes ever more science-driven, a scientifically literate citizenry becomes ever more critical.
“Science is constructed of facts, as a house is of stones. But a collectionof facts is no more science than a heap of stones is a house.”
(Henri Poincare)
The Characteristics of Science
The cornerstones of investigative science are:
1. Materialism. Scientific explanations must be grounded in material causes and cannot not violate natural law. Magic, myth, and mysticism have no place in science and only hinder the search for truths and obscure such truths as we might discover.
2. Testability. Science forms hypotheses that can and must be tested experimentally against the material world.
3. Repeatability. Results obtained through experimental testing must, for the most part, hold true time and again. If an experiment yields significantly different results each time it is conducted, none of the data sets collected from the experiment can be regarded as having any probability of being the truth. Regardless of who conducts the experiment or how many times it is repeated, the results must be substantially the same time and again. Results that cannot be repeated must not be accorded any reliability.
"Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty – some most unsure, some nearly sure, none absolutely sure."
(Richard P. Feynman)
4. Self-Correcting. A scientific theory makes a statement and draws some conclusion about the material world. If later observations or experiments contradict this conclusion, the theory must be revised or rejected. Ideally this should make science self-correcting thus validating the accuracy of any knowledge (truth) gained. However, such is not always the reality of the scientific endeavor as science historians, philosophers, and working scientists will attest.
In summary, science can best be understood and conducted if it is simply regarded as a search for natural truths.
Science is the Search for Natural Truths
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