Anthony's+What+is+Science

Science now more than ever is a critical aspect of our lives today. Medical breakthroughs, computers, the internet, and an uncountable number of other vital parts of our modern lives come from science and its applications. We can very easily tell when something is a science, for example if someone asked you what physics is, you would somewhere in your answer say the word science. We all have our connections when we hear the word science, such as labs, equations, theories, famous scientists, and so on. However, when we try to answer the question “What is science?” it becomes much more difficult. The dictionary definition of science is “the state of knowing; knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding” (according to __Merriam-Webster Dictionary__). However this is much too simple of a definition for the complex and varied science. The single question needs to be broken down in more to get a true understanding of what science is. We need to look at the question as a scientist would. To define science, we need to break science into two keys parts, this science, and previous science. This science is our current science, our current collection of understanding of what we are studying. We use this science to gather knowledge about what we are studying and hope to find some type of “truth” about it (the quotation marks are used because often what we believe to be scientifically “true” is often proven false by further investigation and new discoveries). We use this current science to have a better understanding of the universe and how things work. Previous science is all knowledge and understanding we use to hold as “true” but has been either shown false or modified by our current science. This shows that there is a deep relation between the two. Our current science, while it may have proven previous ones false, used the understanding gained in or from the previous science to gain new understanding and knowledge. To simplify it, we could imagine science as a building. Our current science, this science, can be seen as the second floor and the previous science as the first floor. It is impossible to build the second floor without building the first. Exactly when something becomes a previous science is hard to tell because of how fast science is changing. Since the current and previous are so intertwined, however, it never presents that much of a problem because even though something might have become a previous science, our study of current science must still lean on it for guidance. Another important thing to consider when trying to define science is what social purpose does it serve? As stated above we use science to gain a better understanding of the universe. These new discoveries mean a lot to the scientists studying it, and scientists who read their work, however, it often has little impact on the average person. A modern example is quantum mechanics. When it comes to understanding how the universe works, quantum mechanics, and the theories surrounding it, are a critical part. To the average person though, it has no purpose, no way to make their life easier. Science theory and experimentation seems to have no purpose to serve society. However, its applications often have far reaching effects. Applying science theory and research to real world issues can greatly change the way we live our lives. This application of scientific work to the real world is technology. Going back to the quantum mechanics example, let’s say that scientists fill in all the holes in quantum theory and learn everything there is to learn about it. While that’s a great scientific breakthrough, what does it do for the person who has nothing to with it, and no understanding of what it all means? Well taking all this new knowledge and understanding, it is now possible to apply this work to computers to make them faster and more secure. Now the everyday person has had their life directly affected by this breakthrough in science theory has been applied to create a new technology to better society. Science and technology work hand in hand to make the world better and easier to live in. That is the relationship between science and technology. We use science to understand nature and all its ins and outs, and then we take what we’ve learned, and manipulate it in a way so that it becomes beneficial to humans through advances in technology. The answer to our question we must also consider the institutions science has been conducted in. In the recent past (a few hundred years ago) the Catholic Church was in charge of (among other things) all science. All scientific work was either directly headed by the Church, or needed to be approved by the Church to be published. All other work was cast aside as false, and those who held it to be true were heretics. As time went on, and the Church lost its control of Europe, science moved to universities and colleges. Much scientific work is still conducted in these institutions today. Probably the biggest institution in which science is conducted is through governments. Governments are always looking to advance their technology to make themselves superior to others in many facets, mostly the military, but others such as economically, energy efficiency, etc. However, science does not need to be performed in a place most people would consider scientific. Einstein got the inspiration for most of his theories while he was working as a clerk for a patient office. While there are institutions set up with the sole purpose of carrying out science, all science does not need to be conducted in them. So, it’s clear to see that answering the question “What is science?” leads to a very complex answer. Then again science itself is a very complex thing that cannot be summed up in one short response, but instead needs to be broken up into different parts. Even when considering all these different things, it still becomes clear that science is a vague word that can be applied to a broad spectrum of activities. Something that one group of people would consider science, wouldn’t be considered science by others. Science is a very important part of lives, something we all understand, even if we all can’t fully answer the question “What is science?”