What+is+this+science?++++Final+Draft

Many have gone ahead and asked the question of, “What is Science?” But how many have come up with an answer to such an abstract question? It could be answered by just about anyone, but not many could give an answer that a majority of people would agree with? Now how could this be? We have all used the word since elementary school, yet none of us have an exact definition. I believe this is due to the ever changing technology and innovations in today’s society.  The question of, “What is Science,” has been refined to, “What is this Science?” This may be an easier question to answer because now all that this question is referring to is science at the present time. Few questions are easy to answer, but when there isn’t a definitive response, the answer is subject to criticism no matter what. Now in order determine something as science it must be found through the use of Scientific method. This term has been defined by many and used in many different ways to find solutions to problems. A general definition of Scientific method defined by Hawles, "Scientific knowledge comes from testing theories by logically deducing hypotheses from them, using experiment and careful observation to test the hypotheses, and revising theories that lead to incorrect predictions". One aspect of “this Science” is what we have learned though out or schooling. We have learned science to be different subjects in school, nothing else. We are taught that science is Biology, Chemistry and Physics. But, students are rarely taught what aspects of these make them sciences. Sure we learn about scientific method, but it changes with each and every teacher we learn its definition from. This leads me to believe that scientific method is just a term used to state that we are figuring some answer out in one of the denoted “science” classes. To me, science has become an application of the math that I have learned over the years, and thought to be useless. Science is a combination of multiple fields. It contains the inventions that are happening every day. These inventions cause this generation to never latch onto any one thing. They are always looking for the next new thing. They become bored of things quickly and like to have things handed to them. This is another reason why science cannot be defined. Because if it were, then no one would latch onto that definition before it changed. So even if we could define such a term it would never be identified. The fact that we have other people do many chores that in the past were required by all people makes us lazier as a whole group. This makes us not even want to define a term because it requires too much energy that we don’t wish to exert. One aspect of “this Science” is what we have learned through out or schooling. We have learned science to be different subjects in school, nothing else. We are taught that science is Biology, Chemistry and Physics. But, students are rarely taught what aspects of these make them sciences. Sure we learn about scientific method, but it changes with each and every teacher we learn its definition from. This leads me to believe that scientific method is just a term used to state that we are figuring some answer out in one of the denoted “science” classes. To me, science has become an application of the math that I have learned over the years, and thought to be useless. It must be broken down in each one of these classes as to how what we are learning is science. The students need to learn that what they are doing to solve problems isn’t just busy work, but it is the fundamental uses of science. When kids learn about a chemical reaction in chemistry, they must understand that the tools they use, chemicals being combined and the results of their experiment are all aspects of what make chemistry a science. I’d say that the average person would use the word “science” when referring to something that they don’t totally understand. When I say the word extraterrestrial or alien, automatically people think of science. Now why would people do this? First of all, it’s what we have learned as a nation over the years. We learned that flying saucers and crop circles must have been made by a civilization much more advanced than us. We don’t even know if aliens are really out there, yet we categorize them with science. People rely too heavily on what they have heard and not what they have experienced. Also, for most of us, television becomes our reality. Look at what TV and movie writers say about aliens. Now ask a person to tell you what an alien looks like. Odds are they would say they have big heads and they always have technology more advanced than ours. Just goes to show that if something is said enough times it eventually becomes true. Now I come to the relationship between our current science and those that have preceded it. Past science was dealt a smaller group of individuals than it does now days. Before the days of standardized schooling, only those with the right connections had the chance to get an education. So, the group practicing “science” was only individuals with the funding or with the initiative to find an audience. Science was also more of a thing that had to be experienced. With less means of transporting knowledge, there were fewer chances for people to learn science and everything else. There was no internet to think of, no printed books in previous eras, few could even read handwritten texts, and parts would be lost through translation or just change due to someone forgetting part of what they were relaying. Also the observations made are only as good as the tools used in those observations. Let’s take the idea of evolution. Now back before the era of Darwin and his affiliates, it was common knowledge that man was put on this Earth just as we were and there were no previous ancestors leading up to our species. God created us and we have been here since the time he created the world. With the resources available at the time it wasn’t disputed because it would have been impossible for humans to understand that we evolved from previous species. What allowed Darwin to discover that species evolved over time was his ability to travel around the world, ultimately leading him to the Galapagos Islands. Now once he returned home he was able to show and explain his discoveries through networks that weren’t previously available in the past years. Sure he didn’t publish his findings right away; he was still forming his theory by looking at other animals. But, once he did publish, word spread quickly. The ability alone to publish wasn’t accessible and therefore word could not be spread of such profound discoveries. After years of dispute, evolution was accepted, but only due to the use of printing technology at the time. The way that science was discovered and practiced will always change. With the invention of new technologies that allow humans to view things that they never thought possible, ideas are shifting. Something that was thought to be one hundred percent true even ten years ago could be proven false by one discovery. Science is based heavily on the equipment available at the time. Scientists were able to make strong educated guesses about things, but without the technology we can’t be positively sure that an idea is true. I believe that in the past science was based a lot on what we presumed to be true. Take the example of the earth orbiting the sun or was it the sun that obits the earth. For years we thought that the earth was the center of the solar system with the sun and all the other planets orbiting us. Well things changed in that field, after many years, and the earth was no longer the center of the system. What separates past sciences from current sciences is the amount of information we now know and understand that we didn’t in the past. With the ability to communicate with other scientist and share ideas, I believe that the “truths” that are discovered now days will last much longer than they have in the past. When one person comes up with an idea and says it’s the right, it doesn’t hold as much weight as a collaboration of people saying something is true. In the past being a scientist has been glorified as well as shunned. During some eras scientist were looked up to as forward thinkers moving society upwards. Then, at other times change is looked as evil. I guess it matters what time period you live in to determine how you are judged. Sometimes a society just isn’t ready for the change that may result from a discovery, but what’s a scientist to do if they made a breakthrough in the field they are studying? I believe this is a key difference between the world today and in the past. With much more diversity in every person’s life, we are more willing to accept change. Modern science has become a staple in everyday life. We hear of the discoveries made by scientists and how they can change our lives. The way discoveries are made and how many are uncovered have accelerated through the years being at its very peak at the moment. The peak will continue to rise with science all around us. Now a day being a scientist has become a very prestigious job that many would like to hold. Science has changed over the years and will continue to change as long as people have questions that they want answered. I believe this is why people hold scientist to such a high standard; they answer the questions thought impossible by many in the world. 