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Lecture/Discussion in GSTS Definition of Science Science- any system of knowledge that is concerned with the physical world and its phenomena and that entails unbiased observations and systematic experimentation. In general, a science involves a pursuit of knowledge covering general truths or the...

Lecture/Discussion in GSTS Definition of Science Science- any system of knowledge that is concerned with the physical world and its phenomena and that entails unbiased observations and systematic experimentation. In general, a science involves a pursuit of knowledge covering general truths or the operations of fundamental laws. Science relies on testing ideas with evidence gathered from the natural world. Branches of Science Science can be divided into different branches based on the subject of study. The physical sciences study the inorganic world and comprise the fields of astronomy, physics, chemistry, and the Earth sciences. The biological sciences such as biology and medicine study the organic world of life and its processes. Social sciences like anthropology and economics study the social and cultural aspects of human behaviour. Characteristics of Science Science is complex and multi-faceted, but the most important characteristics of science are straightforward: Science focuses exclusively on the natural world, and does not deal with supernatural explanations. Science is a way of learning about what is in the natural world, how the natural world works, and how the natural world got to be the way it is. It is not simply a collection of facts; rather it is a path to understanding. Scientists work in many different ways, but all science relies on testing ideas by figuring out what expectations are generated by an idea and making observations to find out whether those expectations hold true. Accepted scientific ideas are reliable because they have been subjected to rigorous testing, but as new evidence is acquired and new perspectives emerge these ideas can be revised. Science is a community endeavor. It relies on a system of checks and balances. which helps ensure that science moves in the direction of greater accuracy and understanding. This system is facilitated by diversity within the scientific community, which offers a broad range of perspectives on scientific ideas. Limitations of Science Science is powerful. It has generated the knowledge that allows us to call a friend halfway around the world with a cell phone, vaccinate a baby against polio, build a skyscraper, and drive a car. And science helps us answer important questions like which areas might be hit by a tsunami after an earthquake, how did the hole in the ozone layer form, how can we protect our crops from pests, and who were our evolutionary ancestors? With such breadth, the reach of science might seem to be endless, but it is not. Science has definite limits. Science doesn\'t make moral judgments When is euthanasia the right thing to do? What universal rights should humans have? Should other animals have rights? Questions like these are important, but scientific research will not answer them. Science can help us learn about terminal illnesses and the history of human and animal rights and that knowledge can inform our opinions and decisions. But ultimately, individual people must make moral judgments. Science helps us describe how the world is, but it cannot make any judgments about whether that state of affairs is right, wrong, good, or bad. Science doesn\'t make aesthetic judgments Science can reveal the frequency of a G-flat and how our eyes relay information about color to our brains, but science cannot tell us whether a Beethoven symphony, a Kabuki performance, or a Jackson Pollock painting is beautiful or dreadful. Individuals make those decisions for themselves based on their own aesthetic criteria Science doesn\'t tell you how to use scientific knowledge Although scientists often care deeply about how their discoveries are used, science itself doesn\'t indicate what should be done with scientific knowledge. Science, for example, can tell you how to recombine DNA in new ways, but it doesn\'t specify whether you should use that knowledge to correct a genetic disease, develop a bruise-resistant apple, or construct a new bacterium. For almost any important scientific advance, one can imagine both positive and negative ways that knowledge could be used. Again, science helps us describe how the world is, and then we have to decide how to use that knowledge. Science doesn\'t draw conclusions about supernatural explanations Do gods exist? Do supernatural entities intervene in human affairs? These questions may be important, but science won\'t help you answer them. Questions that deal with supematural explanations are, by definition, beyond the realm of nature and hence, also beyond the realm of what can be studied by science. For many, such questions are matters of personal faith and spirituality. The Scientific Method Scientific method- mathematical and experimental technique employed in the sciences. More specifically, it is the technique used in the construction and testing of a scientific hypothesis. The process of observing, asking questions, and seeking answers through tests and experiments is not unique to any one field of science. In fact, the scientific method is applied broadly in science, across many different fields. The scientific method is critical to the development of scientific theories, which explain empirical (experiential) laws in a scientifically rational manner. In a typical application of method, a researcher develops a hypothesis, tests it through various means, and then modifies the hypothesis on the basis of the outcome of the tests and the scientific experiments. The modified hypothesis is then retested, further modified, and tested again, until it becomes consistent with observed phenomena and testing outcomes. In this way, hypotheses serve as tools by which scientists gather data. From that data and the many different scientific investigations undertaken to explore hypotheses, scientists are able to develop broad general explanations, or scientific theories. Benefits of Science The process of science is a way of building knowledge about the universe constructing new ideas that illuminate the world around us. Those ideas are inherently tentative, but as they cycle through the process of science again and again and are tested and retested in different ways, we become increasingly confident in them. Furthermore, through this same iterative process, ideas are modified, expanded, and combined into more powerful explanations. For example, a few observations about inheritance patterns in garden peas can - over many years and through the work of many different scientists - be built into the broad understanding of genetics offered by science today. So, although the process of science is iterative, ideas do not churn through it repetitively. Instead, the cycle actively serves to construct and integrate scientific knowledge. And that knowledge is useful for all sorts of things: from designing bridges, to slowing climate change, to prompting frequent hand washing during flu season. Scientific knowledge allows us to develop new technologies, solve practical problems, and make informed decisions both individually and collectively. Because its products are so useful, the process of science is intertwined with those applications: New scientific knowledge may lead to new applications. For example, the discovery of the structure of DNA was a fundamental breakthrough in biology. It formed the underpinnings of research that would ultimately lead to a wide variety of practical applications, including DNA fingerprinting, genetically engineered crops, and tests for genetic diseases. New technological advances may lead to new scientific discoveries. For example, developing DNA copying and sequencing technologies has led to important breakthroughs in many areas of biology, especially in the reconstruction of the evolutionary relationships among organisms. Potential applications may motivate scientific investigations. For example, the possibility of engineering microorganisms to cheaply produce drugs for diseases like malaria motivates many researchers in the field to continue their studies of microbe genetics. The Process of Science and You This flowchart represents the process of formal science, but in fact, many aspects of this process are relevant to everyone and can be used in your everyday life even if you are not an amateur or professional scientist. Sure, some elements of the process really only apply to formal science (e.g., publication, feedback from the scientific community), but others are widely applicable to everyday situations (e.g., asking questions, gathering evidence, solving practical problems). Understanding the process of science can help anyone develop a scientific outlook on life. Science and Society Societies have changed over time, and consequently, so has science. For example, during the first half of the 20th century, when the world was enmeshed in war, governments made funds available for scientists to pursue research with wartime applications and so science progressed in that direction, unlocking the mysteries of nuclear energy. At other times, market forces have led to scientific advances. For example, modern corporations looking for income through medical treatment, drug production, and agriculture, have increasingly devoted resources to biotechnology research, yielding breakthroughs in genomic sequencing and genetic engineering. And on the flipside, modern foundations funded by the financial success of individuals may invest their money in ventures that they deem to be socially responsible, encouraging research on topics like renewable energy technologies. Science is not static; it changes over time, reflecting shifts in the larger societies in which it is embedded. Meeting Society\'s Needs Science responds to the needs and interests of the societies in which it takes place. A topic that meets a societal need or promises to garner the attention of society is often more likely to be picked up as a research topic than an obscure question with lite prospect for a larger impact. For example, over the last 15 years, science has responded to the HIV/AIDS epidemic with a massive research effort. This research has addressed HIV in particular, but has also increased our understanding of viral infections in general. Society\'s desire to slow the spread of HIV and develop effective vaccines and treatments has focused scientific research, which improves our understandings of the immune system and how it interacts with viruses, drugs, and secondary infections. Science is done by people, and those people are often sensitive to the needs and interests of the world around them, whether the desired impact is more altruistic, more economic, or a combination of the two, as demonstrated in the example below. HIV research meets a societal need and leads to improved understanding of: vaccines viruses secondary infection Summing up science and society We\'ve seen that society shapes the path of science in many different ways. Society helps determine how its resources are deployed to fund scientific work, encouraging some sorts of research and discouraging others. Similarly, scientists are directly influenced by the interests and needs of society and often direct their research towards topics that will serve society. And at the most basic level, society shapes scientists\' expectations, values, beliefs, and goals - all of which factor into the questions they choose to pursue and how they investigate those questions. GET INVOLVED Even if you don\'t spend your days sequencing DNA, conducting particle accelerator experiments, or analyzing the composition of rocks, you can still influence the path of science with your actions every day. How? Here are some suggestions for getting more involved with scientific research: Change how funding agencies distribute research funds. For example, if you wanted to encourage research into alternative energy sources, you could write your congressperson to let him or her know what research you\'d like to see government agencies fund. Support research. For example, if you wanted science to find a cure for juvenile diabetes, you could support a foundation that promotes research on the disease. Help with data collection and analysis. Some scientific research projects are actively seeking your help as a volunteer. For example, during your home computer\'s downtime, you could offer up its computing power to chemists to help perform calculations about protein shapes. Or you could help astronomers by making backyard observations of variable stars. What has science done for you lately? Plenty. If you think science doesn\'t matter much to you, think again. Science affects us all, every day of the year, from the moment we wake up, all day long, and through the night. Your digital alarm clock, the weather report, the asphalt you drive on, the bus you ride in, your decision to eat a baked potato instead of fries, your cell phone, the antibiotics that treat your sore throat, the clean water that comes from your faucet, and the light that you turn off at the end of the day have all been brought to you courtesy of science. The modern world would not be modern at all without the understandings and technology enabled by science. To make it clear how deeply science is interwoven with our lives, just try imagining a day without scientific progress. Without modern science, there would be: no way to use electricity. From Ben Franklin\'s studies of static and lightning in the 1700s, to Alessandro Volta\'s first battery, to the key discovery of the relationship between electricity and magnetism, science has steadily built up our understanding of electricity, which today carries our voices over telephone lines, brings entertainment to our televisions, and keeps the lights on. no plastic. The first completely synthetic plastic was made by a chemist in the early 1900s, and since then, chemistry has developed a wide variety of plastics suited for all sorts of jobs, from blocking bullets to making slicker dental floss. no modern agriculture. Science has transformed the way we eat today. In the 1940s, biologists began developing high-yield varieties of corn, wheat, and rice, which, when paired with new fertilizers and pesticides developed by chemists, dramatically increased the amount of food that could be harvested from a single field, ushering in the Green Revolution. These science-based technologies triggered striking changes in agriculture, massively increasing the amount of food available to feed the world and simultaneously transforming the economic structure of agricultural practices. no modern medicine. In the late 1700s, Edward Jenner first convincingly showed that vaccination worked. In the 1800s, scientists and doctors established the theory that many diseases are caused by germs. And in the 1920s, a biologist discovered the first antibiotic. From the eradication of smallpox, to the prevention of nutritional deficiencies, to successful treatments for once deadly infections, the impact of modern medicine on global health has been powerful. In fact, without science, many people alive today would have instead died of diseases that are now easily treated. 23 Scientific knowledge can improve the quality of life at many different levels - from the routine workings of our everyday lives to global issues. Science informs public policy and personal decisions on energy, conservation, agriculture, health, transportation, communication, defense, economics, leisure, and exploration. It\'s almost impossible to overstate how many aspects of modern life are impacted by scientific knowledge. Fueling Technology Technology - Designed innovations that serve some practical function. Science and technology frequently contribute to one another - with scientific advances leading to the design of new technologies, and new technologies enabling new observations or tests that advance scientific knowledge. Basic science fuels advances in technology, and technological innovations affect our lives in many ways everyday. Because of science, we have complex devices like cars, X-ray machines, computers, and phones. But the technologies that science has inspired include more than just hi-tech machines. The notion of technology includes any sort of designed innovation. Whether a flu vaccine, the technique and tools to perform open heart surgery, or a new system of crop rotation, it\'s all technology. Even simple things that one might easily take for granted are, in fact, science-based technologies: the plastic that makes up a sandwich bag, the genetically-modified canola oil in which your fries were cooked, the ink in your ballpoint pen, a tablet of ibuprofen - it\'s all here because of science. While images of big, complex innovation, might be the first to spring to mind when you think of technology \... it can also be the smaller, simpler, science-based innovations that we take for granted. Though the impact of technology on our lives is often clearly positive (e.g., it\'s hard to argue with the benefits of being able to effectively mend a broken bone), in some cases the payoffs are less clear-cut. It\'s important to remember that science builds knowledge about the world, but that people decide how that knowledge should be used. For example, science helped us understand that much of an atom\'s mass is in its dense nucleus, which stores enormous amounts of energy that can be released by breaking up the nucleus. That knowledge itself is neutral, but people have chosen to apply it in many different ways: Energy. Our understanding of this basic atomic structure has been used as the basis of nuclear power plants, which themselves have many societal benefits (e.g., nuclear power does not rely on non-renewable, polluting fossil fuels) and costs (e.g., nuclear power produces radioactive waste, which must be carefully stored for long periods of time). Medicine. That understanding has also been used in many modern medical applications (e.g., in radiation therapy for cancer and in medical imaging, which can trace the damage caused by a heart attack or Alzheimer\'s disease). Defense. During World War II, that knowledge also clued scientists and politicians in to the fact that atomic energy could be used to make weapons. Once a political decision was made to pursue atomic weapons, scientists worked to develop other scientific knowledge that would enable this technology to be built. Knowledge of the atomic nucleus has been applied in many different ways: nuclear power medical imaging weapons 000 So scientific knowledge allows new technologies to be built, and those technologies, in turn, impact society at many levels. For example, the advent of atomic weapons has influenced the way that World War II ended, its aftermath, and the power plays between nations right up until today. Science and Technology on Fast Forward Science and technology feed off of one another, propelling both forward. Scientific knowledge allows us to build new technologies, which often allow us to make new observations about the world, which, in turn, allow us to build even more scientific knowledge, which then inspires another technology\... and so on. As an example, we\'ll start with a single scientific idea and trace its applications and impact through several different fields of science and technology, from the discovery of electrons in the 1800s to modern forensics and DNA fingerprinting From cathodes to crystallography A cathode ray tube from the early 1900s screen) and, eventually, into many sorts of image monitors (D and E). But that\'s not all We pick up our story in the late 1800s with a bit of technology that no one much understood at the time, but which was poised to change the face of science: the cathode ray tube (node A in the diagram below). This was a sealed glass tube emptied of almost all air - but when an electric current was passed through the tube, it no longer seemed empty. Rays of eerie light shot across the tube. In 1897, physicists would discover that these cathode rays were actually streams of electrons (B). The discovery of the electron would, in turn, lead to the discovery of the atomic nucleus in 1910 (C). On the technological front, the cathode ray tube would slowly evolve into the television (which is constructed from a cathode ray tube with the electron beam deflected in ways that produce an image on a In 1895, the German physicist Wilhem Roentgen noticed that his cathode ray tube seemed to be producing some other sort of ray in addition to the lights inside the tube. These new rays were invisible but caused a screen in his laboratory to light up. He tried to block the rays, but they passed right through paper, copper, and aluminum, but not lead. And not bone. Roentgen noticed that the rays revealed the faint shadow of the bones in his hand! Roentgen had discovered X-rays, a form of electromagnetic radiation (F). This discovery would, of course, shortly lead to the invention of the X-ray machine (G), which would in turn, evolve into the CT scan machine (H) - both of which would become essential to non-invasive medical diagnoses. And the CT scanner itself would soon be adopted by other branches of science for neurological research, archaeology, and paleontology, in which CT scans are used to study the interiors of fossils (1). Additionally, the discovery of X-rays would eventually lead to the development of X-ray telescopes to detect radiation emitted by objects in deep space (J). And these telescopes would, in turn, shed light on black holes, supemovas, and the origins of the universe (K). But that\'s not all\... The discovery of X-rays also pointed William and William Bragg (a father- son team) in 1913 and 1914 to the idea that X-rays could be used to figure out the arrangements of atoms in a crystal (L). This works a bit like trying to figure out the size and shape of a building based on the shadow it casts: you can work backwards from the shape of the shadow to make a guess at the building\'s dimensions. When X-rays are passed through a crystal, some of the X-rays are bent or spread out (i.e., diffracted) by the atoms in the crystal. You can then extrapolate backwards from the locations of the deflected X-rays to figure out the relative locations of the crystal atoms. This technique is known as X-ray crystallography, and it has profoundly influenced the course of science by providing snapshots of molecular structures. Perhaps most notably, Rosalind Franklin used X-ray crystallography to help uncover the structure of the key molecule of life: DNA. In 1952, Franklin, like James Watson and Francis Crick, was working on the structure of DNA - but from a different angle. Franklin was painstakingly producing diffracted images of DNA, while Watson and Crick were trying out different structures using tinker-toy models of the component molecules. In fact, Franklin had already proposed a double helical form for the molecule when, in 1953, a colleague showed Franklin\'s most telling image to Watson. That picture convinced Watson and Crick that the molecule was a double helix and pointed to the arrangement of atoms within that helix. Over the next few weeks, the famous pair would use their models to correctly work out the chemical details of DNA (M). The impact of the discovery of DNA\'s structure on scientific research, medicine, agriculture, conservation, and other social issues has been wide-ranging so much so, that it is difficult to pick out which threads of influence to follow. To choose just one, understanding the structure of DNA (along with many other inputs) eventually allowed biologists to develop a quick and easy method for copying very small amounts of DNA, known as PCR - the polymerase chain reaction (N). This technique (developed in the 1980s), in turn, allowed the development of DNA fingerprinting technologies, which have become an important part of modern criminal investigations (O). As shown by the flowchart above, scientific knowledge (like the discovery of X-rays) and technologies (like the invention of PCR) are deeply interwoven and feed off one another. In this case, tracing the influence of a single technology, the cathode ray tube. over the course of a century has taken us on a journey spanning ancient fossils, supernovas, the invention of television, the atomic nucleus, and DNA fingerprinting. And even this complex network is incomplete. Understanding DNA\'s structure, for example, led to many more advances besides just the development of PCR. And similarly, the invention of the CT scanner relied on much more scientific knowledge than just an understanding of how X-ray machines work. Scientific knowledge and technology form a maze of connections in which every idea is connected to every other idea through a winding path. Making Strides in Medicine A century ago, a diagnosis of juvenile diabetes was an almost certain death sentence. Children affected by diabetes rarely lived more than a few years. However, thanks to the discovery of insulin in the early 1920s, along with subsequent scientific breakthroughs in genetic engineering that allowed insulin to be mass-produced, that statistic has completely turned around: diabetics now live long lives. Diabetes is just one of many diseases and health concerns for which science has helped develop treatments, preventions, or cures. Without science, we wouldn\'t know how to make an X-ray machine, how to build an artificial knee, how to prevent nutritional deficiencies, how to ward off cholera and malaria, or even, at the most basic level, that hand-washing can prevent the spread of germs. In many thousands of ways, science has supplied us with tools to improve human health- not the least of which has been medications to treat diseases\.... MOLDY MIRACLE DRUGS At his lab bench in 1928, biologist Alexander Fleming found that his research had gone bad moldy, in fact. One of his plates of bacterial colonies had picked up the tiny spores of a mold floating through the air and was now growing a fuzzy head of white fluff. Instead of tossing the contaminated plate, Fleming took a close look and noticed that the white fluff was having a surprisingly powerful effect. The mold, of course, was Penicillium, and it was not only slowing the bacteria - it was actually causing them to explode! Fleming immediately began experiments and soon showed that the mold was able to kill many bacterial strains, including those that cause strep throat, staph infections, pneumonia, syphilis, and gonorrhea. And unlike other bacterial treatments available at the time (like mercury and arsenic), penicillin was non-toxic, exclusively attacking bacteria and leaving the body\'s own cells alone. It would take another decade for scientists to develop the means of producing and purifying the drug efficiently, but when they did, it was a breakthrough, arriving just in time to treat wounded World War II soldiers Alexander Fleming One species of Penicillium is used in the production of the antibiotic penicillin, but others are important in cheese-making. Another, like the one pictured here, causes an AIDS-related illness. Before long, other compounds like penicillin were discovered, ushering in the age of antibiotics and saving millions of lives. Unfortunately, it would not last long. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria rapidly evolved and were first documented just four years after penicillin became widely available. Over the last 20 years, antibiotic resistance has become an increasingly serious problem. Now, medical doctors are again looking towards scientific research with the hope that the lab bench will once more provide them with a silver bullet to fight bacterial infections. Shaping Society Just as it shapes your personal decision-making, scientific knowledge also helps inform regulatory decision-making and policy and the results of these decisions are everywhere. In fact, they are so ubiquitous that you probably never even stop to think about them. Why is your quart of milk decorated with a nutrition label? Why do schools check students\' vaccination records? Why aren\'t your new kitchen tiles made of asbestos? Why is it illegal to pour your used motor oil down a storm drain? Because of science, of course. Science informs policies that promote our health, safety, and environmental stewardship Policies that you confront every day are informed by science. Science doesn\'t dictate policy, but it does give us a \"how-to\" manual for reaching the outcomes that we decide we want. For example: Want to get rid of polio? In the 1940s and 50s, American society got behind efforts to prevent and treat polio by donating to the organization called the March of Dimes. Through the March of Dimes, that societal concern financed research on polio vaccines. Science provided us with the vaccine that made prevention possible, and it also gave us an understanding of polio transmission that shaped our approach to administering the vaccine. If we wanted to truly eradicate the disease, only a massive vaccination effort would do the trick. Today, a polio vaccination is a routine requirement for enrolling in public school in the U.S. In 1988, a set of international health organizations launched a global eradication program based on widespread vaccination and the battle continues. As of January 2007, polio had been beaten back to just four countries. Want to get warning of natural disasters? Though we can\'t yet predict earthquakes, science does have effective ways of predicting when and where hurricanes might strike land. Society has put that knowledge to good use. The National Weather Service continually collects data about meteorological patterns and analyzes those data based on our scientific understanding of weather systems. They may then issue a hurricane warning, which gives citizens time to get to safety and allows community organizers to prepare for evacuations and emergencies. A satellite image of hurricane Emily approaching Mexico Want to repair our ozone layer? The ozone layer shields us from damaging ultraviolet rays, but in 1985, we discovered a chink in that armor a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica. If things went unchecked, science predicted dire outcomes: possible increases in DNA damage and skin cancer rates, along with unpredictable changes in the global food web caused by die-off of UV-sensitive plankton. Luckily, science was also ready with an explanation and a potential solution. The culprit seemed to be chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), human-made chemicals used for air conditioning and aerosol propellants, which, chemists showed, could destroy ozone molecules. Society took science to heart, and in 1990, policy makers from 93 countries gathered in London to sign a treaty, agreeing to phase- out CFCs by 2000. Science doesn\'t tell us that we ought to prevent disease, provide advanced warning in case of disaster, or protect our planet. People make those decisions based on their own values, but once a decision is made, we can use scientific knowledge to figure out how to accomplish that goal and what its likely ramifications will be. CONTRINY NO CFCS DEPLETONG