What is Science

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What is Science?

• Equipped with his five senses, Man explores the
  Universe around him and calls the adventure
  science.
• -Edwin Hubble
• Actually, its more complicated than that.
• -Prof Yelle

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Announcements
Homework 1 is due next Tuesday, September
1. Download it from the web site.
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Main Ideas in Todays Lecture

• Why Study Science?
• An attempt at a precise definition of Science.
• What is not science

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Great new video - Why is Science Important by
Alom Shaha. You need to watch this video to do
the first homework. It is 28 minutes long. Check
out the web site http//whyscience.co.uk
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You Must Battle Demons to Learn
Truth (Buddha)
A Buddhist Temple in Chiang Mai Paradox and
Confusion must be conquered before approaching
truth.
Paradox
Confusion
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Sunday school in Bangkok. Notice the
concentration evident on the faces of most of the
students finding truth is hard work.
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First Clicker Experience

• How long does it take the Earth to go around the
  sun?
• 1 day
• 1 month
• 1 year
• 1 eon

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Second Clicker Experience
The earliest humans co-existed with dinosaurs.
True or false?
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Third Clicker Experience

• Approximately what fraction of the Earth is
  covered with water?
• 25
• 50
• 70
• 90

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Recent California Academy of Sciences Study

• Only 53 of adults know how long it takes for
  the Earth to revolve around the Sun.
• Only 59 of adults know that the earliest humans
  and dinosaurs did not live at the same time.
• Only 47 of adults can roughly approximate the
  percent of the Earth's surface that is covered
  with water.
• Only 21 of adults answered all three questions
  correctly.

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Science and Public Policy

• Climate Change
• Evolution versus Creationism
• Stem Cell Research
• Etc.

An optimistic observer of modern culture would
claim that intelligent and well informed citizens
will need to make decisions on these issues. A
pessimistic observer of modern culture might
think otherwise.
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A compilation of data on science literacy and
education published recently by the
federally-funded National Science Foundation
(NSF) suggests that Americans are likely to have
serious misconceptions about the scientific
process, incorrect knowledge of scientific facts,
and strong beliefs in pseudoscientific theories
2. For instance, only 45 of Americans
surveyed knew that electrons are smaller than
atoms, and only 23 were able satisfactorily to
explain what it means to engage in scientific
study. About one fourth of those surveyed
professed to believe in astrology, and about one
third of Americans believe astrology to be sort
of scientific. Quoted from The Triple Helix
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From Framing the Engineering Outsourcing Debate,
by Dr. Gary Gereffi and Vivek Wadhwa (Duke Pratt
Engineering School)
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Dont get the impression that science is
memorizing facts - It is more than that.

• Its important to understand
• the Scientific Method, the strict rules that
  scientist must follow to obtain scientific
  knowledge
• the characteristics of a scientific theory and
  how they differ from other types of knowledge,
• the larger and more fundamental role that
  science plays in helping us understand the world
  around us.

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The Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment, or simply The
Enlightenment, is a term used to describe a time
in Western philosophy when the cultural life
centered upon the eighteenth century, in which
reason was advocated as the primary source and
legitimacy for authority. Developing more or
less simultaneously in Germany, France, Great
Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and
Portugal, the movement spread through much of
Europe, including the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth, Russia and Scandinavia as well as
the United States. It could be argued that the
signatories of the American Declaration of
Independence, the United States Bill of Rights,
the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen, and the Polish-Lithuanian
Constitution of May 3, 1791, were motivated by
"Enlightenment" principles. from wikipedia
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Science and Enlightenment
From the beginning, science was central to the
enlightenment philosophy. Many enlightenment
thinkers were also scientists (Benjamin Franklin
and Thomas Jefferson, for example). In France,
the French Academy of Sciences and in England,
The Royal Society (a scientific institution)
played a central role in the evolution of
government, the advancement of science, and the
development of technological societies.
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Great Book
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Observing and Experimenting
Science attempts to explain nature. Nature is
probed with observation experimentation. Observ
ations constitute the objective record of
characteristics of nature. Though experiments
we establish a specific physical situation and
observe the results. In both cases abstraction
is required because we focus only on a subset of
specific characteristics and on small scale of
the universe.
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Part of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
Physicists constructed this large machine to set
up a very precise situation, i.e. an experiment.
One of the Keck Telescopes in Hawaii. Astronomers
using this observe nature without influencing it.
In both observations and experiments, scientists
make measurements that are recorded very precise
and repeatable.
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Finding Patterns
Accurate observations and recording is not
enough. Scientists seek to find a pattern that
is repeatable and holds in many circumstances.
Science is more than cataloging.
Science may be described as the art of
systematic over-simplification. Karl Popper,
Philosopher of Science. The Logic of Scientific
Discovery
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Karl Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper was born in Vienna on 28
July 1902. His rise from a modest background as
an assistant cabinet maker and school teacher to
one of the most influential theorists and leading
philosophers was characteristically Austrian.
Popper commanded international audiences and
conversation with him was an intellectual
adventure - even if a little rough -, animated by
a myriad of philosophical problems. His intense
desire to tear away at the veneer of falsity in
pursuit of the truth lead him to contribute to a
field of thought encompassing (among others)
political theory, quantum mechanics, logic,
scientific method and evolutionary theory.
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Looking for Patterns
Science starts with the recognition of repeatable
patterns in phenomenon. The art of science
lies in finding interesting patterns that tell us
something about workings of overlapping
(cluttered) phenomena in the Universe. The best
way to describe patterns is with equations
because specific, quantifiable predictions are
made.
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Some Patterns in Nature
The top panel shows dunes on Saturns moon, Titan.
Sand Dunes in Namibia, Planet Earth
Sand Dunes on Mars.
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The pattern that started it all. This photograph
was made by leaving the shutter of a stationary
camera open for an entire night. The lines track
the motions of the stars as they appear to move
through the sky. The observation of this
patterns raises many questions. Why do the stars
move? Whats special about that point that
doesnt move? Do all heavenly objects follow
this pattern, or are there exceptions?
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Hypotheses and Theories
Observations and/or experiments must be repeated
and reproducible by other scientists. The only
useful hypotheses are those that are falsifiable,
that is they make specific predictions that are
testable and can be proven wrong. If the
predictions are wrong, the theory is discarded.
The only truth in science, the only authority
that matters, are observations and experiments.
Science does not rely upon belief or appeal to
authority, it relies upon testing. Prejudice and
pre-conceived notions are difficult to get rid of
or even to be aware of. Progress in science has
often been the recognition and removal of
incorrect assumptions.
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Scientific Theories must be Falsifiable
The Earth is at the center of the solar system.
This theory is incorrect, but it is falsifiable
because it leads to specific predictions that can
be tested to determine if the theory is correct.
Freudian Analysis is sometimes useful. This may
be true, but it is not falsifiable. There is not
experiment, observation, or test that can prove
the theory false, that Freudian analysis is never
useful thus, the theory is not
falsifiable. Progress is only possible if a
theory can be proved wrong .
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Example Theories of Gravity
Isaac Newton formulated his theory of gravity in
1687. As far as anyone could tell, it was
perfectly correct. Nevertheless, the theory was
constantly tested and re-evaluated. 229 years
later, Albert Einstein proposed a correction to
Newtons theory, known as the General Theory of
Relativity. Differences between Newtons and
Einsteins theories are very small nevertheless,
every test to date has shown Einsteins theory to
be more accurate. Differences between
predictions based on Newtons and Einsteins
theories are not important on Earth, but are
important in the larger universe. Despite its
success, Einsteins theory is still being tested.
NASA is currently operating a spacecraft called
Gravity Probe B, whose main mission is to test
Einsteins theory of gravity.
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What is not Science?

• Astrology
• Creationism
• Parapsychology
• Almost anything you see on late night T.V.

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How do we determine if there is a scientific
consensus on an issue?
Many issues facing us are complicated and
difficult to understand without years of study.
How does one form an opinion on such issues? By
consulting the experts. Who are they?

• Consult Scientific Societies, i.e. the National
  Academy of Sciences.
• Read the peer-reviewed literature
• Scientists of all types publish their
  results as articles in professional journals. To
  be published the article must be approved by an
  editor who is advised by 1-3 other scientists
  that are experts on the topic in question.

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National Academy of Science

• 2100 members in 31 disciplines.
• New Members are elected by current members.
• Achievement in science is suppose to be the only
  criterion.
• Most prestigious collection of wise heads in
  Science.
• Charged with giving advice to policy makers.
• http//www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer