Transcript Exploration of Governing Themes: What is Science?

Exploration of Governing
Themes
What is Science?
http://www.project2061.org/
Science for All Americans
Science vs. technology
• Interface of society and science is
technology
• Another whole topic of discussion
Three questions
• How does a scientist “see” the
world?
– Assumptions made
• How does a scientist go about
doing science?
– Scientific method
– Scientific enterprise
• Is there beauty in science?
“Seeing the world”
• Scientists’ training give them a different
view of world than non-scientists
• Scientific views of the world have
changed over time
– Like painters
• Different disciplines highlight different
aspects of the world
– Volcanoes and elephants
“Seeing the world”
Assumptions scientists make
• The world is understandable
– Science explains and predicts
• How we understand the world can change
– Humility is a useful attribute
– Science is not authoritarian
• Scientific knowledge is durable
• There are parts of our lives science cannot
address
Doing science :
The scientific method
“When I think of the formal scientific
method an image sometimes comes to
mind of an enormous juggernaut, a huge
bulldozer-slow, tedious, lumbering,
laborious, but invincible…”
Robert Pirsig,
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The scientific method :
What is it?
• A particular way of asking and
answering questions
– Evidence
• Data
– Logic
• Inductive and deductive reasoning
– Imagination
• Hypothesis and/or theories
“Show me the data”
• Choosing the variables to change
– Penlight in dark attic
• Manipulating chosen variables
• Controlling the ones not chosen
– Noise and bias
Bias : The hidden
troublemaker
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Instrumental bias
Sample bias
Methodology bias
Researcher bias
Dealing with bias
• Repetition
– Over time in the same lab
• under different conditions
– With different researchers
Logic
• Science originally called “Natural
Philosophy”
– Logic applied to nature
– Scientists don’t disagree much
about logic
Imagination
The missing ingredient
• Logic and data necessary but
not sufficient
• Need a story
– hypothesis or a theory
“What if ?”
Hewlett Packard TV Commercial
Hypotheses and theories
• The good
• The bad
• The messy
The good...
• A good hypothesis or theory explains and
links things
– Plate tectonics
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earthquakes
volcanoes
the matching fossils on different continents
the shapes of continents
contours of the ocean floors
• Explain previous data, predict new data
The good (cont’d)
• Hypotheses used to:
– Choose what data to pay attention to
– Decide what additional data to seek
– Guide the interpretation of data
The bad . . .
"The man who is striving to solve a problem defined by
existing knowledge and technique is not just looking
around. He knows what he wants to achieve, and he
designs his instruments and directs his thoughts
accordingly."
Thomas Kuhn
The Structures of Scientific Revolutions
The messy . . .
• Hypothesis = proposed change in
world view
• Nobody likes change
“Discovery” of oxygen
• 18th century chemists believed
– burning materials released an invisible
fluid called phlogiston
• Phlogiston caused heating
– burning nothing to do with air itself.
• No idea that oxygen was the active agent
“Discovery” of oxygen
• 1772 - Swedish Pharmacist, Scheele isolates oxygen
– calls it "fire air"
• 1774 - English cleric, Priestley isolates oxygen
– First hypothesized it was laughing gas
– Later hypothesized it was dephlogistated air.
• 1774 - French chemist Lavoisier isolates oxygen
– Hypothesized it was a very pure form of air
– Hypothesized only formed when air was heated
“Discovery” of oxygen, cont’d
• 1777 - Scheele publishes book “Fire and Air.”
– Hypothesizes oxygen as a distinct and separable component of air
• 1779 - Lavoisier proposes the name oxygen
– part of air that is respirable
– responsible for combustion
• Early 1800’s - John Dalton incorporates oxygen into
atomic theory
The scientific enterprise
Social and cultural aspects of science
The scientific enterprise . . .
… is a complex social activity
… reflects social values and viewpoints
… goes on in many different settings
Communication
• Scientists present or publish papers
– Inform other scientists about their work
– Learn what else is going on in their field
– Expose their ideas to criticism by other
scientists
• Peer review process
Organization
• Scientific disciplines differ by:
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history
phenomena studied
techniques used
language used
kinds of outcomes desired
Division by disciplines
• Advantage
– provide a conceptual structure for organizing
research and research findings.
• Disadvantages
– divisions do not necessarily match the way the
world works
– can make communication difficult
Borders between disciplines
• Borders not fixed
• Some disciplines grow and become
disciplines in their own right
– Biology
– Chemistry
– Biochemistry
Ethics
• Ethical norms
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Accurate recordkeeping
Openness
Replication
Critical review by peers
• Consider possible harm of doing
experiments
• Consider consequences of applying research
Aesthetics
“I remember once listening to some tedious Galenist
lecturing on blood in Padua and the very next day being
lent a copy of Harvey’s magnificent work on circulation. It
was so clear, so simple, and so obviously true that it took
my breath away”
Marco da Cola
in An Instance of the Fingerpost
by Iain Pears