What+is+Science?

If I asked you: “Do you think you are a scientist?” Would you say yes? We often don’t see ourselves as scientists. Even if we don’t study science professionally or wear the white lab coats that society has labeled scientists as. We are indeed scientists. Now if this is true, then we all must study science. Technically not all of us do, but we do all observe science. Science can be described in many ways but in its basic form it is knowledge that explains our surroundings and the world. This encompasses both physical objects (living and inanimate) and abstract concepts. Science is an interesting term that covers a very broad subject.

If you take a look at Merriam-Webster’s definition of science you will find definitions such as “the state of knowing” or “a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study.” Now if all science is, is a “state of knowing,” then we can say anything we know is science, which is not essentially true. Science must be learned, whether it be through observations or learned. It is also in our everyday lives. The occurrence of common meaningless observations you have every day is your inner scientist at work. That is not to say that the professionally trained researcher is not a scientist. One part of science is observation; the other is deriving conclusions from those observations. Humans are curious in nature and it is what drives us in investigation. We want to know, so we study and observe our surroundings. From what findings we make, we can conclude knowledge or “science.” This “science” serves a special purpose in the way it categorizes and obtains knowledge.

The term “science” helps to describe a very large range of subjects or knowledge itself. Science is not a different type of knowledge but a different topic. The true meaning of “science” can be confusing because you can refer to science in different ways. Instead of calling science as knowledge, you can say science is an understanding of how a phenomenon works. You don’t necessarily have to understand something to know it. This can be a problem when what we know isn’t really true. If we look at another one of Merriam-Webster’s definition: “knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method, such knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with physical world and its phenomena.” It says that it covers “general” truths or laws of our world. That is to say science is not necessarily true. However, this “knowledge” does not have to be true or correct; this “knowledge” must be probable. Science uses what we know to figure out what we don’t know. But say if the knowledge that we know is incorrect, so we end up learning new information that is also false. However somewhere down the line it should become obvious that the initial basis of information was wrong. Scientific breakthroughs do this occasionally by disproving old theories that were once accepted. It is interesting if we say that this discovery (disproving the initial theory) was never made and that most of what we know is wrong. We would end up in a cycle of false information and time spent would be left to nothing gained. So in a sense it is better to say that what we learn from science to always be true unless proven otherwise. Not knowing the truth is not always a bad thing. In fact if you look at Ptolemy’s geocentric view of the universe, it was incorrect but it was still able to describe when and where the moon and stars would be on a given night. On the other hand science always seems to disprove wrong theories.

Some say science is an art, and indeed it is. In one way it can be the practice of discovery because science can be the technique in understanding the unknown. The “scientific method” is often associated with science. In my eyes it describes any systematic process used towards reaching science or knowledge if you will. The system is logical but is not the same concrete procedure. Therefore, it is unique and sometimes almost non-existent. The discovery of science is not or cannot always be planned. Sometimes spontaneous events can lead to observation or systematic approach. No matter what the method, it is still an investigation of science. The “scientific method” is often described as logical and orderly because of the way it can approach and help explain phenomenon. It is especially helps when you want to prove something wrong since it is always easier to prove something wrong than correct. Although if you can’t prove something wrong, then it’s possible that it is true. Surprisingly this system works quite well for science considering the advances science has made up to today.

However, today science is no longer as tied to its roots as it used to be. Much of science is intertwined with technology and much of science depends on technology. This is especially true when the accuracy of scientific measurement relies on technology. The improvement of tools, machinery, and computers to do the calculations can all make measuring more precise. This fusion of technology and science did not occur until recent centuries. It has also developed the thought among society that advances in technology truly mean advances in science. This can be true but in most cases it is not because science is not entirely dependent on technology. It becomes interesting when technology spurs new science. Take a look at the invention of computers. This technology has brought about computer science. Computer science is the knowledge of how computers work, quite similar to the definition of science. Now here science describes an abstract idea. Science can describe both physical objects and abstract ideas. Not all phenomena can be explained by physical thought. This becomes apparent when you look at the topic of gravity. It is obviously an abstract idea. Gravity is noticeable through physical movement but cannot be described by a physical explanation.

The relationship between humans and science is significant. We did not create science but have found a way to study it. We are constantly learning from science but we can never fully understand it because there is no way to prove that what we say is true is actually true. You might be thinking why study something that we can never fully comprehend. Science leaves the human race for something to always strive towards and because of our curious nature we always will. Still, it cannot be overlooked that science has made enormous improvements towards our way of life and understanding of the cosmos. This “science” has no concrete definition. It is unforgiving in its depth of knowledge and will follow us into the future of the unknown.