NSCI 110 - validity of scientific claims is settled by

referring to observations of phenomena

NATURE OF SCIENCE
- evidence is obtained by observations and
measurements taken in situations that
❖ The Scientific World View
range from natural settings to completely
● The World is Understandable contrived ones

- Science presumes that the things and ● Science is a Blend of Logic and
events in the universe occur in consistent Imagination
patterns that are comprehensible through - all sorts of imagination and thought may be
careful, systematic study used in coming up with hypotheses and
- Science also assumes that the universe is, theories, sooner or later scientific
as its name implies, a vast single system in arguments must conform to the principles
which the basic rules are everywhere the of logical reasoning
same - testing the validity of arguments by
● Scientific Ideas are Subject to Change applying certain criteria of inference,
demonstration, and common sense
- Science is a process for producing - a hypothesis should suggest what evidence
knowledge, depends both on making would support it and what evidence would
careful observations of phenomena and on refute it
inventing theories for making sense out of
those observations ● Science Explains and Predicts
- Change in knowledge is inevitable because - Scientists strive to make sense of
new observations may challenge prevailing observations of phenomena by constructing
theories explanations for them that use, or are
● Scientific Knowledge is Durable consistent with, currently accepted
scientific principles
- most scientific knowledge is durable - credibility of scientific theories often comes
- modification of ideas, rather than their from their ability to show relationships
outright rejection, is the norm in science among phenomena
- Continuity and stability are as characteristic - essence of science is validation by
of science as change is, and confidence is observation
as prevalent as tentativeness
● Scientists Try to Identify and Avoid Bias
● Science Cannot Provide Complete
- scientific evidence can be biased in how the
Answers to All Questions
data are interpreted, in the recording or
- beliefs that—by their very nature—cannot
reporting of the data, or even in the choice
be proved or disproved (such as the
of what data to consider in the first place
existence of supernatural powers and
beings, or the true purposes of life) ● Science is Not Authoritarian
- esteemed authorities have been wrong
❖ Scientific Inquiry many times in the history of science
- no scientist, however famous or highly
- various scientific disciplines are alike in
placed, is empowered to decide for other
their reliance on evidence, the use of
scientists what is true
hypothesis and theories
- everyone can exercise them in thinking
scientifically about many matters of interest ❖ Nature of the Scientific Enterprise
in everyday life
● Science is a Complex Social Activity
● Science Demands Evidence
 - Scientific work involves many individuals solving problems that originate in the world
doing many different kinds of work and of experience
goes on to some degree in all nations of - applied mathematicians, study the interval
the world pattern of prime numbers to develop a new
- science inevitably reflects social values and system for coding numerical information,
viewpoints rather than as an abstract problem
- direction of scientific research is affected by - Theoretical mathematics, unlike the other
informal influences within the culture of sciences, is not constrained by the real
science itself world, but in the long run it contributes to a
- Because of the social nature of science, the better understanding of that world
dissemination of scientific information is
crucial to its progress ❖ Mathematics, Science, and Technology
- science can be thought of as the collection
of all of the different scientific fields - Because of its abstractness, mathematics is
- scientific disciplines do not have fixed universal in a sense that other fields of
borders human thought are not
- Generally Accepted Ethical Principles in the - Science provides mathematics with
Conduct of Science: e pressure to get credit interesting problems to investigate, and
for being the first to publish an idea or mathematics provides science with
observation leads some scientists to powerful tools to use in analyzing data
withhold information or even to falsify their - Mathematics is the chief language of
findings. science. The symbolic language of
- Such a violation of the very nature of mathematics has turned out to be
science impedes science extremely valuable for expressing scientific
ideas unambiguously

NATURE OF MATHEMATICS
● Abstraction and Symbolic
- Mathematics relies on both logic and
creativity, and it is pursued both for a Representation
variety of practical purposes and for its - Mathematical thinking often begins with the
intrinsic interest process of abstraction—that is, noticing a
- the chief value of mathematics is how it similarity between two or more objects or
applies to their own work events
● Manipulating Mathematical Statements
❖ Patterns and Relationships - After abstractions have been made and
- Mathematics is the science of patterns and symbolic representations of them have
relationships been selected, those symbols can be
- mathematicians are interested only in combined and recombined in various ways
finding a pattern or proving that there is according to precisely defined rules
none, but not in what use such knowledge - Typically, strings of symbols are combined
might have into statements that express ideas or
- A central line of investigation in theoretical propositions, rules of ordinary algebra can
mathematics is identifying in each field of then be used to discover that if the length
study a small set of basic ideas and rules of the sides of a square is doubled, the
from which all other interesting ideas and square's area becomes four times as great
rules in that field can be logically deduced - the manipulation of abstractions is much
- Mathematics is also and applied science; like a game: Start with some basic rules,
mathematicians focus their attention on then make any moves that fit those rules—
 which includes inventing additional rules - engineering consists of construing a
and finding new connections between problem and designing a solution for it; first
- old rules devise a general approach and then work
- The test for the validity of new ideas is out the technical details of the construction
whether they are consistent and whether of requisite objects
they relate logically to the other rules - Engineering decisions, whether in designing
an airplane bolt or an irrigation system,
inevitably involve social and personal values
as well as scientific judgments

NATURE OF TECHNOLOGY

- As long as there have been people, there ❖ Designs and Systems

has been technology
- The Essence of Engineering Is Design
- technology has been a powerful force in
Under Constraint, engineering design
the development of civilization, all the more
operates within constraints that must be
so as its link with science has been forged
identified and taken into account
- technology is a complex social enterprise;
technology extends our abilities to change
- Constraints:
the world
o Absolute
- We use technology to try to change the
o Flexibility: Economic, political, social, and
world to suit us better
ecological
- optimum design takes into account all the
❖ Technology and Science constraints and strikes some reasonable
- Technology Draws on Science and compromise among them
Contributes to it - Designs almost always require testing,
- Engineering, the systematic application of especially when the design is unusual or
scientific knowledge in developing and complicated, when the final product or
applying technology, has grown from a process is likely to be expensive or
craft to become a science in itself dangerous, or when failure has a very high
- Engineers use knowledge of science and cost
technology, together with strategies of - testing is often done by using small-scale
design, to solve practical problems physical models, computer simulations,
- Technology does not just provide tools for analysis of analogous systems
science, however; it also may provide ● All Technologies Involve Control
motivation and direction for theory and
- All systems, from the simplest to the most
research
complex, require control to keep them
- The mapping of the locations of the entire
operating properly
set of genes in human DNA has been
- The essence of control is comparing
motivated by the technology of genetic
information about what is happening with
engineering
what we want to happen and then making
● Engineering Combines Scientific Inquiry appropriate adjustments
and Practical Values - Control typically requires feedback (from
- component of technology most closely sensors or other sources of information)
allied to scientific inquiry and to and logical comparisons of that information
mathematical modeling is engineering to instructions
 ● Technologies Always Have Side Effects - Technology has strongly influenced the
course of history and the nature of human
- every design is likely to have unintended society, and it continues to do so
side effects in its production and application - Technology is largely responsible for such
- The effects of ordinary technologies may be large-scale changes as the increased
individually small but collectively significant urbanization of society and the dramatically
- Risk analysis, however, can be complicated. growing economic interdependence of
Because the risk associated with a communities worldwide
particular course of action can never be - technological change (such as
reduced to zero industrialization and mass production)
causes social change, whereas others have
believed that social change (such as
political or religious changes) leads to
technological change
● All Technological Systems Can Fail ● The Social System Imposes Some
- Failure is rare enough to be surprising. Yet Restrictions on Openness in Technology
the larger and more complex a system is, - professional values of engineering are very
the more ways there are in which it can go similar to those of science, including the
wrong—and the more widespread the advantages seen in the open sharing of
possible effects of failure knowledge
- If failure of a system would have very - large investment of time and money and
costly consequences, the system may be considerable commercial risk are often
designed so that its most likely way of required to develop a new technology and
failing would do the least harm, examples bring it to market
of such "fail-safe" designs - Secrecy most often provides only an
advantage in terms of time—a head start,
❖ Issues in Technology not absolute control of knowledge
- Patent laws encourage openness by giving
● The Human Presence individuals and companies control over the
- earth's population has already doubled use of any new technology they develop
three times during the past century - national security concerns may lead to
- Our access to and use of vast stores of secrecy
fossil fuels have made us dependent on a ● Decisions About the Use of Technology
non-renewable resource
are Complex
- developments in technology have brought
- technological innovations spread or
enormous benefits to almost all people
disappear on the basis of freemarket forces
- human presence has reduced the amount
—that is, on the basis of how people and
of the earth's surface available to them by
companies respond to such innovations
clearing large areas of vegetation
- Rarely are technology-related issues simple
- same intelligence that got us where we are
and one-sided
—improving many aspects of human
existence and introducing new risks into the
world—is also our main resource for
survival
● Technological and Social Systems
Interact Strongly
- Individual inventiveness is essential to
technological innovation
 these tools to look at very small slices of
space and time
- What we know about stars is based on
analysis of the light that reaches us from
them

❖ The Earth
- the earth's shape is approximately
spherical, the result of mutual gravitational
attraction pulling its material toward a
common center
- Of all the diverse planets and moons in our
solar system, only the earth appears to be
capable of supporting life as we know it.
The gravitational pull of the planet's mass
is sufficient to hold onto an atmosphere
THE PHYSICAL SETTING
- This difference in heating different parts of
- it is a tribute to human intelligence that we the earth's surface produces seasonal
have made as much progress as we have in variations in climate
accounting for how things fit together - The rotation of the planet on its axis every
24 hours produces the planet's night-and-
day cycle
❖ The Universe
- The basic energy source is the heating of
- The universe is large and ancient, on scales land, ocean, and air by solar radiation
staggering to the human mind. The earth - The earth's rotation curves the flow of
has existed for only about a third of the winds and ocean currents, which are
history of the universe further deflected by the shape of the land
- It seems that the entire contents of the - earth comprises a great variety of minerals,
known universe expanded explosively into whose properties depend on the history of
existence from a single hot, dense, chaotic how they were formed as well as on the
mass more than ten billion years ago elements of which they are composed
- Heavier planets feel closer to the sun; - Fresh water is an essential resource for
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars. While lighter daily life and industrial processes
planets fell far away from the sun; Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune ● Processes That Shape the Earth
- there are eight planets, around the planets - interior of the earth is hot, under high
orbit a great variety of moons and (in some pressure from the weight of overlying
cases) flat rings of rock and ice debris or layers, and denser than its rocky crust
(in the case of the earth) a moon and - solid crust of the earth—including both the
artificial satellites continents and ocean basins—consists of
- These tools include radio and x-ray separate sections that overlie a hot, almost
telescopes that are sensitive to a broad molten layer
spectrum of information coming to us from - Volcanic activity along these mid-ocean
space separations may build up undersea
- huge "atom smashers" that simulate mountains that are far higher than those
conditions in the early universe and probe rising from the land surface—sometimes
the inner workings of atoms thrusting above the water's surface to
- Most of what we believe we know about create mid-ocean islands
the universe must be inferred by using all
❖ Structure of Matter o energy stored in mechanical strains
involves the separation of mutually
- The basic premise of the modern theory of attracting electric charges
matter is that the elements consist of a few - Heat energy in a material consists of the
different kinds of atoms—particles far too disordered motions of its perpetually
tiny to see in a microscope—that join colliding atoms or molecules
together in different configurations to form
substances
- Electrically neutral particles (neutrons) in ❖ Motion
the nucleus add to its mass but do not - Motion is as much a part of the physical
affect the number of electrons world as matter and energy are
- Every substance can exist in a variety of - Since everything is moving, there is no
different states, depending on temperature fixed reference point against which the
and pressure motion of things can be described
- Bonds are formed between atoms when - Changes in motion—speeding up, slowing
electrons are transferred from one atom to down, changing direction—are due to the
another effects of forces
- Molecular configurations can be as simple - The greater the amount of the unbalanced
as pairs of identical atoms (such as oxygen force, the more rapidly a given object's
molecules) or as complex as folded and speed or direction of motion changes; the
cross-linked chains thousands of atoms more massive an object is, the less rapidly
long (such as protein and DNA molecules) its speed or direction changes in response
- configuration of electrons in atoms to any given force
determines what reactions can occur
between atoms, how much energy is
❖ Forces of Nature
required to get the reaction to happen, and
how much energy is released in the - two kinds of forces we are commonly
reaction aware of are gravitational and
- Reaction rates can be affected dramatically electromagnetic
by very small concentrations of some atoms - Gravitational forces are thought of as
and molecules involving a gravitational field that affects
- reactions occurring in water solution may space around any mass
be affected significantly by the acidity of - electromagnetic forces acting within and
the solution between atoms are immensely stronger
than the gravitational forces acting
between them
❖ Energy Transformations
- nuclear force that holds particles together
- Energy appears in many forms, including within the atomic nucleus is much stronger
radiation, the motion of bodies, excited than the electric force, as is evident in the
states of atoms, and strain within and relatively great amounts of energy released
between molecules by nuclear interactions
- Forms of Energy:
o Sound energy is chiefly the regular back-
and forth motion of molecules
o heat energy is the random motion of
molecules
o gravitational energy lies in the separation
of mutually attracting masses