Nature of Science

INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The world where we live is constantly changing. Things before is no longer the same as today. From simple, almost everything is now becoming more complex. During the early times, people have limited knowledge regarding their environment. However, as times passes by, peoples’ way of thinking changed and improved. They become curious about their existence and on how things happen. Through these, science and technology emerged and flourished. Nowadays, in just a press in a button, almost everything that we need will come out readily available for our consumption and satisfaction. Even at a very young age, children at the present time can already manipulate the latest gadgets. Things are made easier because of science and technology especially in the fields of communication, transportation, health economy and nation building.

Science and Technology through Time

            In the beginning, man had only his body and what nature had to offer to live by. He had abundant trees, animals, fresh air and fresh water. Life then could have been so easy for man because he simply had to gather things that he needed that await him.

            It did not take long when man decided he should wear clothes and should live in a house. Then he made a bed to lie on, a chair and a table where he could eat his meals placed in a plate. Then started to use fire to cook his food so there was no need to tear the food with fangs, instead he used a spoon and a fork. His quest for comfort led him to discover the electric fan, electric range, radio and television set. Later, he wanted to go places so he invented the car. With the car came the smooth road and the use of fossil fuels, like diesel and gasoline.

            In the twentieth century, man invented the computer. This opened new avenues so that man’s way of living has almost of not completely changed. To know what is happening in the entire world, man has to simply log in to the news video clips. To enjoy a game, man has to simply turn on an internet game and viola. He has the whole world for his playground! If man needs new ideas, he simply has to surf through the internet. Aren’t all of these wonderful?

            I agree, but is this all that there is to the new discoveries of science? Perhaps in the beginning they make us feel good but in the end we will later realize that with modernization comes nature’s destruction.

            So is it proper if somehow we believe that a scientist is simply one who can invent/create new things. Or is he the man who can create new things but knows when and how to stop to maintain the orderliness of the universe?

Science

Science comes from the Latin word scientia which means, “knowledge”. It is a systematic body of knowledge based on observation, investigation and study. It is said to be systematic because it follows a specific step by step process. Science tries to explain how and why things are happening. Science is a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws.

Science as a product is an ever-changing body of knowledge. It is an ongoing process of investigating and thinking:

1.      a way of thinking which involves reasoning, and

2.      a way of investigating which involves questions, observations, experimentations and predictions.

Limitations of Science

Mankind has never devised a better tool for solving the mysteries of the universe than science. However, there are some kinds of questions for which scientific problem solving is unsuited. In other words, science has limitations.

There are three primary areas for which science can't help us answer our questions. All of these have the same problem: The questions they present don't have testable answers. Since testability is so vital to the scientific process, these questions simply fall outside the venue of science.

The three areas of limitation are:

• Science can't answer questions about value. For example, there is no scientific answer to the questions, "Which of these flowers is prettier?" or "which smells worse, a skunk or a skunk cabbage?" And of course, there's the more obvious example, "Which is more valuable, one ounce of gold or one ounce of steel?" Our culture places value on the element gold, but if what you need is something to build a skyscraper with, gold, a very soft metal, is pretty useless. So there's no way to scientifically determine value.

• Science can't answer questions of morality. The problem of deciding good and bad, right and wrong, is outside the determination of science. This is why expert scientific witnesses can never help us solve the dispute over abortion: all a scientist can tell you is what is going on as a fetus develops; the question of whether it is right or wrong to terminate those events is determined by cultural and social rules--in other words, morality. The science can't help here.However, scientists are not exempted from consideration of the moral issues surrounding what they do. Like all humans, they are accountable morally and ethically for what they do.

• Finally, science can't help us with questions about the supernatural. The prefix "super" means "above." So supernatural means "above (or beyond) the natural." The toolbox of a scientist contains only the natural laws of the universe; supernatural questions are outside their reach.

Science and Superstition

“No one is perfect”, this is one of the common passages that is usually uttered to express imperfection.  Science as a knowledge is also an imperfect body which cannot explain all phenomena. Superstitions are beliefs which are not usually explained by the methods of natural sciences. They began from curiosity and observation, but unlike science, no experiment was conducted to test whether the claims were correct or not. In short, superstitions don’t have scientific basis.

Here are some of the superstitions commonly believed:

Ø  breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck,

Ø  wearing of polka dot clothes during New Year brings fortune,

Ø  if a black cat crosses one’s path, bad luck happens’

Ø  black butterfly means death to a member of the family,

Ø  wearing of the wedding gown by the bride before the wedding means the wedding will not push through, and

Ø  it brings bad luck when you sweep inside the house at night.