Learn about the history and fields of science.

Learn about the history and fields of science.

Science is a collection of verifiable systematic knowledge that studies, explains, and predicts social, artificial, and natural phenomena of the observable universe.

 

Scientific knowledge is acquired methodologically through observation and experimentation in a particular field of study. They are organized and classified according to explanatory principles, whether theoretical or practical. Based on logical reasoning and objective analysis of scientific evidence, scientific methods are used to formulate research problems and hypotheses, derive principles and laws, and build models, theories, and systems of knowledge.

 

Science considers and is based on experimental observations. This type of observation isconstructed through methods, models, and theories to generate new knowledge. For this purpose, the standards of truth and the methods of investigation are pre-determined. The application of these methods and knowledge leads to the creation of new knowledge in the form of concrete, quantitative and testable predictions that refer to past, present and future observations. These predictions are often formulated through reasoning and can consist of general rules or laws that describe the behavior of a system and predict how the system will behave in specific circumstances.

 

After the Scientific Revolution, scientific knowledge increased significantly, making scientists experts, and their publications were very difficult for non-specialists to read. This has initiated various scientific outreach activities aimed at bringing science closer to the general public and promoting understanding and collaboration among scientists from various fields.

 

Science history

The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. Science is the empirical, theoretical, and procedural knowledge of the universe, produced by scientists formulating verifiable explanations and predictions based on observations. There are three main branches of science: nature, society, and form.

 

The earliest roots of science can be traced back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia around 3000 to 1200 BC. His contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine came and formed in the ancient Greek philosophy of nature, which gave accounts of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of the Greek worldview declined in Latin-speaking Western Europe in the early Middle Ages (400-1000 AD)and continued to flourish in the Greek-speaking Eastern Roman (or Byzantine) Empire. With the help of translations of Greek texts, the Hellenistic worldview was preserved and absorbed into the Arabic-speaking Islamic world during the Islamic Golden Age. The restoration and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic studies in Western Europe from the 10th to the 13th centuries revived the learning of natural philosophy in the West.

 

Natural philosophy was transformed during the European Scientific Revolutions in the 16th and 17th centuries as new ideas and discoveries deviated from earlier Greek concepts and traditions. New science, which emerged based on knowledge based on a newly defined scientific methodology, was more reliable and open with a worldview more mechanistic and integrated with mathematics. More "revolutions" soon followed in the next century. The 18th century chemical revolution, for example, introduced new quantitative methods and measurements of chemistry. In the 19th century, new perspectives on energy conservation, the age of the Earth, and evolution received attention. And in the 20th century, new discoveries in genetics and physics laid the groundwork for new sub-disciplines such as molecular biology and particle physics. Moreover, the growing complexity of industrial and military interests and new research efforts soon ushered in an era of "big science," especially after World War II.

 

Scientific field

The scientific disciplines are generally divided into three groups: formal sciences, natural sciences, and human sciences or social sciences. These constitute the basic sciences that underlie applied sciences such as engineering and medicine.

 

Several scientific classifications have been proposed and used over the centuries. Some contain hierarchical components between sciences that produce tree spheres, so the concept of a scientific discipline arises. Before the Renaissance, all knowledge, not technology or art, was in the realm of philosophy. Knowledge of nature was about universal science. With the Scientific Revolution, a separation of science and philosophy was imposed and major modern sciences emerged.