Lesson 1: What is science?

This is the Introduction
Ok, time for you to learn some stuff.  Now, it's pretty vitally important that we start off with the more basic concepts before we move on to ultra-hard super-physics.  So let's start with a condescendingly simple question:  What is science?

America’s math and science comprehension is pretty bad. Like, rarely breaking the top 10 bad.

A bit outdated, but I don't really care.

Although those numbers might be cherry-picked, according to a Tau Beta Pi report, there still exists a huge internal gap in scientific literacy between upper and lower classes in America

As an aspiring edutainer, it falls on me to bridge this gap by any means I can.  I’m assuming all the responsibilities here, so tell your 8^th grade science teacher she can relax and take the year off.

So What Exactly Is Science? 
Seriously, what is it? What does it mean to use science or to be a scientist?  And is its meaning even important?  Well, assumedly the answer to that last question is yes, because I took the time to write this essay.

Now obviously there are many facets of math and science that just require practice to really understand.

  I don’t feel like giving you homework; I’m just going to give you lectures about it, to give you a basic familiarity with the subject matter.  So, sit down, shut up, and pay attention. I’ve got things to teach you.

My physics homework is annoying, so you don't have to do it.

I checked a lot of places for a suitable definition of science. “Science” was brought to us by the Romans, with the word scientia, meaning “knowledge” in Latin. The Oxford Dictionary defines science as “ the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment”.  That’s a mouthful. Maybe using the OED for this definition wasn’t a good idea.  There’s got to be a more concise way of describing science.  Maybe just call it the study of the universe and be done with it?

Offhand I can’t think of a good definition for science, so I’m going to list some facts about it, then at the end try to cobble together a definition.  And I’m not saying that for drama, I really can’t think of a good definition at the moment.  That’s going to make editing this entry pretty strange.

So here are some points about 
What Science Is and What Science Isn’t:

* Science is about studying the universe.  And all the stuff in the universe. That much is true. But there’s more to it than that. Science is really a way to go about gathering this knowledge; it’s about adding knowledge to the collective human library.

* There’s no single “scientific method”. Observation, hypothesis, experiment, conclusion, modified hypothesis, however you might have been told their interplay, it’s more of a way of thinking than a procedure.  The important part of the scientific method is this: you modify your hypothesis to fit the data.  You don’t have to have a hypothesis to start with, but it usually helps. You make observations, or create an experiment to test this hypothesis, or to look at some phenomenon. Then you make conclusions and modifications based on that data. Note, experimental observations don’t necessarily require labs; zoologists often study animals in the wild, cosmologists look out into the galaxy for data.

* The purpose of science is to get chicks

This guy does science to impress these girls

* Science supposes that the universe behaves consistently. The observations you make today, under the same circumstances, are what you’d see tomorrow.  It requires a certain level of “repeatability”, ie, if you do the same experiment twice, you’ll get the same result.  This is why experiments and science are useful at all.  If you create a theory that describes something you’ve seen, you can expect that theory to explain the same phenomena happening later on. 

* Science is not a repository of information.  Though sometimes “science” might refer to the knowledge we’ve gained from science.  This is something that grade school might have done, drilling into us that science is a list of facts about the earth, the universe, ecology, the human body, etc. While these could be called scientific knowledge, as science is used to determine these facts, the facts themselves are not really what science is.  Science deals with finding new facts, not memorizing old ones.

This book will never exist

* Similarly, science is not absolute.  New evidence can overturn centuries-old scientific facts. Science ultimately comes down to finding the best conclusion fitting the data, and when the data changes, so too must the conclusion.

* Science does not prove things.  Unless a scientist is talking to a very immature crowd, or the evidence is completely overwhelming, the term “proof” will not be used in a scientific context.  Scientists have data and evidence, which support theories.  This is because of the above point--new data can often change conclusions. Any scientific fact is falsifiable.  If something is proved, it is absolute and immutable. 

* Scientific thinking requires one to always be skeptical in lack of evidence.  Without evidence, to support a theory, the theory is worthless scientifically, and if someone puts forth an absurd claim, they better be able to back it up--as the “Sagan Standard” says, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”.  Of course, this is countered by Sherlock Holmes’ own motto: “When you’ve eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”.  The point is, evidence--data---is the most important factor in determining the veracity of a scientific statement.

* Science requires a lab coat. Ok, actually, lab coats are used to protect your clothes from chemicals you might spill on yourself.  Mostly chemists and biologists wear them. Physicists essentially just wear whatever they want, unless they’re in a clean room.

Lab coats are also good for boxing in

* Theory does not mean what you think it means. Law and Theory are not different levels of truth; a theory doesn’t get promoted into being a law.  They are different kinds of descriptions. The law is the observable piece--for these given circumstances, this particular thing will happen-- the theory is the machinery that causes it to work--this is why that particular thing happened. In science, a theory is a framework. It’s the explanation of how a natural process works. For example, Newton’s Law of Gravitation is F= G m1 m2/r^2 , while Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity says that the speed of light is a constant.

* Math isn’t science. Sometimes.  Math is intimately connected to science.  The theories and models in science often require math to explain them, and the deductive reasoning and rationale of math are required for science, too. Math is often taught in science departments at colleges.  But because of the more purely logical nature of math, many mathematical facts can be proven and are not falsifiable, which I mentioned is important for science.  There are, however, frontiers in math that can’t be reduced to logic alone, and the methods used in math are often coincident with science.  Whether or not math can be considered a science will the often depend on the kind of math one is discussing.

* Art isn’t science.  Many will find this patently obvious, others will think this patently false.  Science and art are similar to science and math.  There is an art to doing science.  But in the end, like math, art is not falsifiable. There’s no right or wrong art.There is, however a theme of “elegance” when it comes to science.  There are generally numerous ways to come to a conclusion, numerous ways to design an experiment, and numerous possible correct answers. The manner of doing science is left to the taste of the scientist, and so there is art. Also, scientists make really pretty pictures, like this one I made as an undergrad:

That's right, science is friggin beautiful.

* Engineering is not science.  Engineering is an application of science.  It’s taking scientific principles and using them to solve a problem.   Once again, the use of scientific principles gives engineering huge overlap with science, but it is not science itself.

* Science isn’t a religion. Religion relies on faith in an existence beyond the universe, and as such is neither provable nor falsifiable.  Science does not require faith; it is readily observable in our own universe.  The idea of a deity at all requires that he be beyond the laws that govern the universe, by definition.  To that end, neither science nor religion will contradict each other except on more minor details.  I will likely expand on this point in a later post.

Executive Summary in Charge of What are We Talking About?

Ok, I suppose I have to come up with a better definition of science now.  So what do we have? 

-Science represents any given field of study of the universe

-Science is about adding info to our collective knowledgebase

-Science suppose the universe behaves consistently

-Scientific conclusions are based on data and observations.

So if we mix these together, we get something like “Any study of the behavior of the universe, based on the supposition that the universe behaves consistently, wherein conclusions are drawn from observations, data, and logical reasoning.”  Well that’s a mouthful, too. Let me try and boil it down to its essence. “A study of the universe’s behavior, whose conclusions are based on data and logical reasoning.”

Does anyone else believe they have a better definition, or something I left out?


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Edit: Just one week after I published this post, Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked how he would personally like to change science education. His response was “I would teach how science works as much as I would teach what science knows. I would assert (given that essentially, everyone will learn to read) that science literacy is the most important kind of literacy they can take into the 21st century. I would undervalue grades based on knowing things and find ways to reward curiosity. In the end, it's the people who are curious who change the world.” So I’m kinda proud I just beat him to the punch.