SCIENCE: A Way of Knowing

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SCIENCE A Way of Knowing

• I. The Role of Science
• A. Making Choices
• 1. What gasoline to buy
• 2. What shampoo is best for my hair
• 3. What pain relievers work for me
• 4. Apply same thought process when
• we want to learn about a star or a
• living cell.

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SCIENCE A Way of Knowing

• B. Why study science?
• Newspaper headlines weather, environmental
  issues, earthquakes
• Powerful tool to understand how our world works
  and how we interact with our physical
  surroundings
• Represents our best hope for predicting and
  coping with natural disasters, curing diseases,
  discovering new technologies
• Better prepared to incorporate these advances in
  your professional life and better understand
  process by which such advances are made
• Consumer, tax payer, living being, parent

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SCIENCE A Way of Knowing

• The Scientific Method
• Observation
• Plato believed that only through the mind can we
  arrive at reason and truth
• Observing nature without manipulating it (ex.
  Astronomer)
• Experiment manipulating some aspect of nature
  and observing the outcome (ex. Chemist)
• Identifying Patterns and Regularities
• Repeated observations start to recognize
  patterns
• Results of observations summarized in
  mathematical form
• Ex. Falling object

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SCIENCE A Way of Knowing

• Mathematics, the Language of Science
• Concise language that allows them to communicate
  their results in compact form and allows them to
  make precise predictions about expected outcomes
  of expts. Or observations
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Hypothesis educated guess
• Theory description of the world that covers
  large number of phenomena and has met many
  observational and experimental tests
• Prediction and Testing
• A guess about how a particular system will behave
  followed by observation to see if the system
  behaved as expected within a specified range of
  situations
• Every theory and law of nature is subject to
  change, based on new observations

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SCIENCE A Way of Knowing

• The Scientific Method in Operation
• Endless cycle observations lead to hypothesis
  which lead to more observations
• Scientists are not required to observe with an
  open mind
• There is no right place to enter the cycle
• Observations and experiments must be reported in
  a way that results can be verified (reproducible)
• Cycle is continuous
• The Ongoing Process of Science Biodiversity
• Biodiversity number of different species that
  coexist at a given place

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SCIENCE A Way of Knowing

• Science in the Making Dimitri Mendeleev and the
  Periodic Table
• Chemistry professor at Technological Institute of
  St. Petersburg, Russia, developed the periodic
  table in 1869
• Arranged list of elements (63) by increasing
  atomic weights
• He realized that elements with similar chemical
  properties appeared at regular or periodic
  intervals.
• The Science of Life William Harvey and the
  Bloods circulation
• He gave us our current picture of the pattern of
  circulation.
• Blood is pumped from the heart to the body
  through arteries and returned to heart through
  veins.

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SCIENCE A Way of Knowing

• Other Ways of Knowing
• Different Kinds of Questions
• The scientific method is not the only way to
  answer questions.
• What is the meaning of life?
• Is there a God?
• What career should I choose?
• Pseudoscience
• A kind of inquiry falling in the realm of belief
  or digma which includes subjects that cannot be
  proved or disproved.
• Ex UFOs, Astrology, ESP

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SCIENCE A Way of Knowing

• Science by the Numbers Astrology
• Belief that positions of objects in the sky at a
  given time (ex. Persons birth) determine a
  persons future.
• The Organization of Science
• The Divisions of Science
• Field researchers observe nature at work
• Experimentalists manipulate nature with
  controlled expts.
• Theorists spend their time imagining universes
  that might exist.

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SCIENCE A Way of Knowing

• The Branches of Science
• Physics search for laws that describe matter,
  energy, forces, motion, heat, light
• Chemistry study of atoms in combination
• Astronomy study of stars, planets and other
  objects in space
• Geology study of origin, evolution and present
  state of earth
• Biology study of living systems
• The Web of knowledge
• Intricate spider web

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SCIENCE A Way of Knowing

• Basic Research, Applied Research, Technology
• Basic Research finding out how the world works
  in knowledge for its own sake
• Applied Research develop technology in which
  they apply results of science to specific
  commercial or industrial goals
• R D ideas developed by applied research
  translated into practical systems
• Technology transfer large-scale production

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SCIENCE A Way of Knowing

• TechnologySETI_at_Home
• Search for Extraterrestial Intelligence
• Funding for Science
• Table 1-3
• Federal budget for R D in 2002 was 100 billion
  dollars
• Scientists seeking for research submit grant
  proposals
• A proposal has about a 10 to 40 chance of being
  successful depending on the subject

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SCIENCE A Way of Knowing

• Communication Among Scientists
• Scientific meetings
• Journals, publications
• Scientists submit papers to publish results of
  their research
• Journal editor sends manuscript to a panel of
  reviewers which are scientists that are experts
  in that field
• Usually send back with a list of modifications
  and corrections
• This process is known as peer review.