SOK Module 4 – Short Notes for HY

 What is Science?

Science is knowledge. Science is both a body of knowledge and a process.

Science is all based on evidence found, hence it is not democratic. Science provides
reliable but TENTATIVE. Science is all based on logic and evidence and not faith.
Scientific knowledge is amenable to falsification. Science does not make moral or
aesthetic decisions. Science is ongoing and is very useful in medicine, technology and
various industries. The scientific endeavour is never complete. Always new questions
and methods are developed. Everyone from all over the world participate in this
human endeavour.

 Curiosity and Knowledge

All searches in science begin with a question. The willingness of human beings to
learn about themselves, surroundings and communication skills and other aspects
lead them to ask questions about almost everything. Scientists, always ask questions
like ‘How is a child conceived?’, ‘How does the solar system work?’. Questions are
asked in other areas of knowledge such as: ‘Is a painting beautiful?’, ‘How can we
learn a language?’. This CURIOSITY always leads us to search for answers and when
the answer is found, we have learned something new.

There are various ways of learning, such as:

o Philosophy
o Art
o Religion

Philosophy explains the occurrences by reason. Art is based on the expressions of

feelings, thoughts and even interpretations of different art. While Religion, is based
on FAITH.

All the methods which are listed above, they are degree subjective. Science claims to
be objective, but is not based on opinion, feelings or faith but ONLY on Evidence. In
Science, there is not space on subjectivity but only for empirical evidence.

Science tries to answer 3 BASIC Questions.

1. What there?
2. How does it work?
3. How did it use to work?

What there?; This is always a question about nature. Science CANNOT answer questions
which are not on the physical aspect of nature. This question has to be answerable. There
SHOULD be a way to verify it.
How does it work?; Scientist are not only interested in discovering new phenomena in
nature but also derive from where these phenomena came from and how they function.
When scientists understand these phenomena, we may control better the world and its
surroundings.

How did it use to work?; By understanding how nature behaved in the past years and
compare it, scientists may be able to draw a path, how nature has changed and why it
changed. This helps the scientists predict how nature will change in the future and if it will
keep evolving.

“Eureka!” or “aha!” moment may not always happen, but they are often experiences that
drive science and scientists. For a scientist, every day holds the possibility of discovery. There
are many basic questions which have yet to be answered:
1. What causes gravity?
2. How do our brains store memories?
3. How do water molecules interact with each other?

Still, we do not know these questions, but the curiosity and numerous questions which we
still have to find answers, brings science forward.

Scientific questions can seem very complex, but they do not have to be. You have probably
posed many perfectly valid scientific questions yourself like:

1. How can airplanes fly?

2. Why do cakes rise in the oven?
3. Why do apples turn brown once they are cut?

These questions can be answered, if searched at a library or on the Internet.

Discoveries and new questions keep scientists awake at night, but this is only one part of the
picture. The rest involves a lot of hard work. In science, discoveries and ideas must be
verified by multiple lines or pages of evidence and then you can integrate it with the rest of
science. Unfortunately, this process can take up many years. Often, these discoveries are not
bolts from the blue. A discovery can be the result of many years of work on a particular
problem.

The process of scientific discovery is not limited to professional ones working in

sophisticated laboratories. Some psychologists argue that the way individual humans learn a
lot of similarities to the progress made in science. They both involve making observations,
considering evidence and testing ideas.

Science is very difficult to define precisely. Philosophers have been arguing about it for
decades. The problem is that the word ‘science’ applies to various human endeavours, from
developing lasers to analysing the factors that affect human decision-making.
To define science, there is a checklist that summarizes key characteristics of science.
Rutherford’s investigation into the structure of the atom. This checklist provides a guide for
what sorts of activities are encompassed by science, but since the boundaries of science are
not clearly defined, the list should not be interpreted as all-or-nothing. Some of these
characteristics are particularly important to science as science is BASED on evidence, but
other characteristics are less central. Some perfectly investigations may run into a dead end
and not lead to ongoing research.

 Science asks questions about the natural world

Science studies the natural world. This includes the components of the physical universe
around us like atoms, plants, ecosystems, people, societies and galaxies as well as the
natural forces at work on those things. On the other hand, science CANNOT study the
supernatural forces and explanations. The supernatural afterlife exists but it is not part of
science since this afterlife works outside the rules that commands the natural world.

Science can investigate all sorts of questions:

1. When did the oldest rocks on earth form?

2. Through what chemical reactions do fungi get energy from the nutrients they
absorb?
3. What causes Jupiter’s red spot?
4. How does smog move through the atmosphere?

Very few questions are off-limits in science – but the sorts of answers science can provide
are limited. Science can only answer in terms of natural phenomena and natural processes.

In the early 1900s, Ernest Rutherford studied the organisation of the atom  the
fundamental particle of the natural world.

 Science aims to explain and understand

Science as a collective institution aims to produce more and more accurate natural
explanations of how the natural world works. Investigating the chemical reactions that
an organic compound undergoes in order to learn about its structure. Despite the fact
that they are subject to change, scientific ideas are reliable. The ideas that have gained
scientific acceptance have done so because they are supported by many lines or pages of
evidence. These explanations continually generate expectations that hold true, allowing
us to figure out how entities in the natural world are likely to behave.
 Science works with testable ideas

Only testable ideas are within the purview of science. For an idea to be testable, it must
logically generate specific expectations. Consider the idea that a sparrow’s song is
genetically encoded and is unaffected by the environment in which it is raised, like the
idea that a sparrow learns the song it hears as a baby. If the sparrow’s song was indeed
genetically encoded, we would expect that a sparrow raised in the nest of a different
species. A scientific idea may require a lot of reasoning to work out an appropriate test,
may be difficult to test and may require the development of new technological tools to
test.
If an explanation is equally compatible with all possible observations, then it is not
testable and hence, not within the reach of science.

 Science relies on evidence

Ultimately, scientific ideas must not only be testable, but must actually be tested,
preferably with many different lines or pages of evidence by many different people.
This characteristic is at the HEART of science.

 Science is embedded in the scientific community

The progress of science depends on interactions within the scientific community.

That is the community of people and organizations that generate scientific ideas, test
the ideas and then publish a scientific journal and then organize conferences, train
scientists, distribute research funds and so much more… This community provides
the cumulative knowledge base that allows science to build on itself. It is also
responsible for the further testing and scrutiny of ideas and perform checks and
balances on the work of community members. The scientific research is collaborative
with different people bringing their specialized knowledge to bear on different
aspects of the problem. In very rare cases, scientists DO actually work in isolation.

 Scientific ideas lead to ongoing research

Science is an ongoing endeavour. It did not end with the most recent edition of your
college physics textbook and will not end even once we know the answers to big
questions, such as how our 20,000 genes interact to build a human being or what
dark matter is. So long as there are unexplored and unexplained parts of the natural
world, science will continue to investigate them.

Typically, in science, answering one question inspires scientists deeper and more
detailed questions for further research. Coming up with a fruitful idea to explain a
previously anomalous observation frequently leads to new expectations and areas of
research.

 Participants in science behave scientifically

Science is sometimes misconstrued as an elite endeavour in which one has to be a

member of “the club” in order to be taken seriously. Science is now open to anyone
 and benefits tremendously from the expanding diversity of perspectives offered by
its participants.

Here is a scientist’s code of conduct:

1. Pay attention to what other people have already done
2. Expose your ideas to testing
3. Assimilate the evidence
4. Openly communicate ideas and tests to others
5. Play fair.

Science has limits: A few things that science does not do

Science is powerful. It has generated the knowledge that allows us to call a friend halfway
around the world with a phone, vaccinate a baby against polio, build skyscrapers and drive a
car.

 Science doesn’t make moral judgements

Questions like; ‘When is euthanasia the right thing to do?’ ‘What universal rights
should humans have?’ are important but the scientific research will not answer
them. Science can help learn about terminal illness and the history of human and
animal rights.

 Science doesn’t make aesthetic judgements

Science can reveal the frequency of a G-flat and how our eyes relay information
about colour to our brains, but science cannot tell us whether a Beethoven
symphony is beautiful or dreadful.

 Science doesn’t tell you how to use scientific knowledge

Although scientists often care deeply about how their discoveries are used, science
itself doesn’t indicate what should be done with scientific knowledge.

 Science doesn’t draw conclusions about supernatural explanations

Do Gods exists? Do supernatural entities intervene in human affairs? These questions
may be important, but science won’t help you answer them. Moral judgements,
aesthetic judgements, decisions about applications of science, and conclusions about
the supernatural are outside the realm of science, but that doesn’t mean that these
realms are unimportant.
 Characteristics of Science
It is reliable, though tentative. Science is based on empirical evidence obtained from
experiments and observations. It has also been used in the past and therefore tested.

It is not democratic. Science is accepted on the basis of facts and not of opinion.

It is non dogmatic. Science is not a religion. In religion there is knowledge which has
to be believed even if there is no way to verify it.
It cannot make aesthetical or ethical decision. The aim of science is not to provide a
knowledge which is beautiful or accepted by the society.

Modern Science

When Gregory Mendel began his investigations of plant genetics in the 1800s, he
worked alone. 150 years later, modern plant genetics laboratories look a lot more
diverse and employ the latest DNA sequencing techniques.

Science will always look for explanations for what goes on in the natural world and
test those explanations against evidence from the natural world but exactly hot this
gets done may evolve. The scientific enterprise is not static.

 Publication and Peer Review

The rise of the Internet has enabled scientific results to be publicized more rapidly
than ever before possible. Journal articles are often made available online even
before they are printed.

 Specialization and collaboration

As our scientific knowledge has advanced and the questions we seek to answer have
become more complex, science has become more specialized.

 Scientific Ideas are Subject to Change

Science is a process for producing knowledge. The process depends both on making
careful observations of phenomena and on inventing theories for making sense out
of those observation. Scientific knowledge usually changes for 3 reasons;
 1) Scientists may realise that in the past mistakes were done in calculations
or assumptions.
2) The environment is continuously changing and theories which would have
explained correctly natural phenomena in the past, would not explain it
correctly now.
3) Technology is continuously changing and improving. Modern technology
may help scientists to make new discoveries or more accurate
calculations.

Art vs Science

Art expresses individual’s feelings in a way that others find beautiful, graceful, or at least
aesthetically satisfying.
Undisplayed or unloved art is art.
Aesthetics is critical to art.
Science is the attempt to reach demonstrable, replicable conclusions about the natural
worlds. The conclusions reached must be shared with others. It does not have to be
aesthetically beautiful. Future changes in science are ALWAYS EXPECTED.

SCIENCE vs RELIGION

Science and religion are very different, both in what they try to do and in the approaches
they use to accomplish their goals.
Religion discovers knowledge from ancient texts and knowledge does not change. Science
refers to modern discoveries and it is expected to change rapidly. Religious people are totally
convinced about their knowledge while scientists always question their knowledge.

Science vs Technology

Scientists study the natural world, they do not invent anything. Technologists or engineers
build the manmade world. Often they use knowledge coming from science but they do not
practice science.

Science gives us a theory while technology gives us product.

Science is made from scientists while technology is made from engineers.

IN SCIENCE AESTHETICS are NOT IMPORTANT while these ARE VERY IMPORTANT IN
TECHNOLOGY!
Science is the study of nature while technology is man-made.

Science is not truth and is NOT certainty

Although scientists seek to discover the truth, they will never arrive to discover absolute
truth. This is because the body of knowledge in science is always changing due to changes in
the environment, changes in discoveries and new developments.

Basic Concepts

Science uses specialized terms that have different meanings than everyday usage. These
definitions correspond to the way scientists typically use these terms in the context of their
work.

 Fact
In science, an observation that has been repeatedly confirmed and for all practical
purposes is accepted as ‘true’.
 Deductive and Inductive Reasoning
In science, there are 2 ways of arriving at a conclusion.

 Deductive Reasoning

Deductive reasoning happens when a researcher works from the more general
information to the more specific. Sometimes this is called the ‘top-down’ approach
because the researcher starts at the top with a very broad spectrum of information
and they work their way down to a specific conclusion.

 Inductive Reasoning

Inductive Reasoning works the opposite way, moving from specific observations to
broader generalizations and theories. This is sometimes called ‘bottom up’ approach.
 Hypothesis

A tentative statement about the natural world leading to deductions that can be tested.
If the deductions are verified, the hypothesis is provisionally corroborated.

 Law

A descriptive generalization about how some aspect of the natural world behaves under
stated circumstances.

 Theory
In science, a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can
incorporate facts, laws, inferences and tested hypotheses.

 Evidence
Scientific evidence is information gathered from scientific research, which takes a lot of
time to conduct.

Conclusion

As you can see, there is no ‘proof’ or absolute ‘truth’ in science. The closest we get are
facts, which are indisputable observations.

The Scientific Method

The scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring
new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. The chief
characteristic which distinguishes the scientific method from other methods of acquiring
knowledge is that scientists seek to let reality speak for itself, supporting a theory when
the predictions are confirmed and challenging a theory when its predictions prove false.
Scientific inquiry is GENERALLY INTENDED to be as objective as possible in order to
reduce biased interpretations of results. This practice, called full disclosure, also allows
statistical measures of the reliability of the data to be established when data is SAMPLED
OR COMPARED TO CHANCE.
 Armstrong – Harrington Model
The scientific method is a process for experimentation that is used to explore
observations and answer questions.

The Armstrong – Harrington Model first asks the question if the scientist wants to learn
more about, then the research phase begins. After the hypothesis begins as an ‘educated
guess’ after which the procedure of the experiment is carefully followed and written.
Then all of the data is collected and observation phase where the scientist writes a
detailed description and then the conclusion which the scientist asks again if the original
hypothesis is correct or not and if is correct it should become a law and therefore
published.
 Universe Today Model

The scientific method is the important process by which all scientific knowledge is
acquired. The first step is to define the question. You look at the problem you are trying
to solve or the phenomena you are trying to understand and formulate a question that
can get the scientist a solution. The second step is to collect the data and observe. The
third step is then to form a hypothesis. This is your preliminary explanation of the
answer to your question. The 4th step is experimentation. The 5th step is data analysis and
you see if you found new clues. The final steps is that you publish your findings.

Conclusion

Science is obtained by the use of the scientific method. Whichever method is used, it
always leads to the knowledge based on the evidence obtained from observations and
experiments. The great advantage of the scientific method is that it is unprejudiced; one
does not have to believe a given researcher. A theory is then accepted based on the
results obtained through observations. There is a very important characteristic of a
scientific theory or hypothesis which differentiates it form like a theory must be
falsifiable. This means that there must be some experiment or possible discovery that
could prove the theory untrue.