What Is Science?

I believe that people wrongly fear studying science. Science is a branch of knowledge and the systematic study of the universe and all it encompasses - one that is based on facts, observation, and experimentation.

Some people love science and others less so. Maybe you are one of the individuals who think it's hard. Quite frankly, it should be hard. I'm sure you know that anything worthwhile in life is a difficult endeavor but always worth fighting for.

And, of course, you reap what you sow. And if you work hard at it, you gain far more than grains of knowledge and the gift of persistence that comes from toiling in the field of science. You gain a specific kind of mindset for the rest of your life - a mindset that allows you to logically observe and learn the truths of the world that are based on evidence and objective understanding.

Such a mindset can open new and exciting worlds for you. Maybe you'd like to find out why Mentos makes pop fizz. Or perhaps you want to find out how we can travel forward in time. Further still, you may want to cure someone of a disease and earn their undying gratitude. Science allows you to do all of this and more.

Science vs. Dogma vs. Pseudoscience

From all of that, you should've understood that the nature of science is one that is based on reason, experimentation, facts, and truths. Science aims for logic, ration, and objectivity, even in the face of a lot of unknowns, wild emotions, and the subjective whims of the mind trying to steer our fallible minds into traps of surreality. Science is not dogma, a set of principles laid out as being unquestionably true.

Scientists have shown over and over again that as we search for the real answers in this world, truths can change all based on newer and better information. This is very disturbing to some, especially those that prefer a stable world and mind. It may help explain why some people prefer other avenues of so-called 'truths' to answer life's questions as these dogmatic answers are much simpler to understand, unchangeable, and less stressful to deal with.

Imagine if we still believed in the historical dogma of the sun revolving around the earth. If that was still the case, your GPS wouldn't work, your TV wouldn't be able to entertain you, and you may even have trouble using your beloved smartphone! And that's just the tip of it all.

But scientists love new information; that is their nature and that of science itself. New information yields better ideas, technology, and saves lives.

Speaking of simple explanations for our world, science is also not the same thing as pseudoscience; something that astrology is the perfect embodiment of. Pseudoscience is a false or fake science; a system of beliefs that looks like it is based on scientific ideas but actually doesn't employ or obey the simplest rules of science itself!

A pseudoscientist is someone who pretends to use real science. Sort of like how Frank Abagnale, the man behind the movie Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, pretended to be all sorts of people and used all sorts of credible-sounding terms to pass himself off as a lawyer or pilot.

Take his story of pretending to be a doctor. A pseudoscientist is like someone who dresses like a doctor and throws around terms they barely understand left and right to sound credible, but when faced with a truly scientific scenario, like having to deal with a severely injured patient, they panic, don't know what to do, and wouldn't be able to justify their decision-making process with any significant modicum of logic.

In short, real science has very specific testable claims that are laid out and verified. If they're not verified, they are rejected. A sure sign of a pseudoscience is the disregard of contradictory evidence and alternative explanations.

Pseudoscience is also a field which fails to have any real proof for its assertions. Unless you consider a blurry picture of the Loch Ness monster as proof of anything. Poor Nessie. It's never the camera's fault; she's just naturally blurry!

Hypothesis, Theory, & Law

As opposed to taking blurry photos, scientists study the world by coming up with new hypotheses, testing them, and then developing successful ideas into theories and laws. These theories and laws tell us how the world really works.

A hypothesis is a single assertion, a proposed explanation of something based on available knowledge for something yet to be explained and that is subject to further experimentation. A theory is a system of assumptions that generalize results of well-confirmed hypotheses in order to apply them to a wide range of circumstances.

What Is Earth Science?

There are three main branches of science: life science, physical science, and earth science. In each of these disciplines are subcategories of specific areas or fields. Life science includes biology, ecology, or environmental science. Physical science includes chemistry and physics. Earth science, which is the topic of this course, includes many branches, some of which we will cover in this lesson. We will discover what geology is along with the related branches of meteorology and oceanography.

Earth Science Is More Than You Think

Earth science is a general term referring to any studies that relate to the earth or neighboring planets in our solar system. The four major fields in earth science include geology, the study of the earth's structure; meteorology, the study of the weather and atmosphere; oceanography, the study of the oceans; and astronomy, the study of the universe. There can be even further specialization in these four fields because experts might hone in on one specific aspect in a field, like volcanology, the study of volcanoes; seismology, the study of earthquakes; or limnology, the study of freshwater.

Word Roots

Our language is made up of many parts of words from many different languages. Science is no different. Many of the words we use in science and medicine have their roots in Greek and Latin. If you are familiar with some roots and make connections with other words you know, the meaning of many words can be deciphered.

For instance, geology is the study of the earth. Broken down into its parts, '-ology' comes from the Greek word 'logia' and means 'the study of,' and the root 'geo-' means 'related to the earth.' These same parts are used many places in science with similar meanings, like geography, where 'geo-' means 'the earth' and '-graphy' comes from the Greek 'graphics,' meaning 'written.' Also, biology is the '-ology,' or 'study of,' 'bios,' or 'the way of life.'

How about some others? Meteorology can be broken apart to '-ology' from 'logic,' which we already learned, and 'meteor-,' which is Greek for 'high in the sky.' Meteorology is the study of weather. Oceanography, another branch of earth science, uses 'ocean,' or 'related to the ocean,' and 'graphics,' which we learned before means 'drawing,' giving us the name for the study of the oceans. Maybe the people naming this field thought 'oceanology' didn't have a nice ring to it.

What Do Scientists Do?

You might be asking yourself, 'What is the purpose of earth science,' or maybe, 'What do scientists study in these fields?' There are a great many reasons why earth science is an important field of study. Meteorology, for instance, is a very pertinent field of study because we are all affected by the weather. The more accurate the weather predictions, the better planning that can be made. The sooner warnings about impending storms, like tornadoes or hurricanes, are issued, the better chance for saving lives, property, and money.

Scientists study oceanography to learn about the composition, organisms, and processes of the ocean. This is important because 71% of our earth is covered by them, and they are critical for our survival. Food and other commodities come from the oceans. Oceans are being investigated for usable sources of energy and also because they are the main influence on our climate.

Geology has two main divisions in its field: physical geology and historical geology. Physical geology focuses on the composition and structure of our earth as well as its processes. Scientists might study earthquakes and their predictions or volcanoes and their eruptions. In historical geology, scientists would work on elucidating the past history of the earth and its organisms as well as the timing of physical events. They would work on reconstructing the formation of the earth and the sequence of events globally or locally. Geologists work to uncover sources of fuels and other natural resources and work to conserve our natural treasures.

Defining Chemicals

The periodic table shows all of the elements found in the world

Everything in this world is made up of elements such as oxygen, iron, gold, and every other element you can find in the periodic table. A chemical is an element or any combination of these elements. For example, oxygen in the air is a chemical and is always a combination of two oxygen elements. Elements are the building blocks of other chemicals, making a single element the simplest form of a chemical.

Water, a combination of two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom, is a chemical. The chemical name for water is dihydrogen monoxide. The chemical capsaicin in the peppers is what makes the pepper spicy.

Chemicals and the Human Body

First of all, the human body is made up completely of chemicals - from the air, we breathe to the muscles that move our arms (chemicals including nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen). Yet not only is everything in our body chemicals but in order for our body to function the chemicals are reacting with other chemicals in our body.

For example, when we eat a slice of bread (which is made up of chemicals), our body starts to break that bread down into chemicals that we can use. The starch (the main constituent in the bread) is broken down into glucose which gets absorbed and undergoes a process called glycolysis. Through this process, the glucose is changed (by combining it with other chemicals and breaking it apart) into chemicals such as glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate and pyruvate. It is also turned into adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which in turn reacts with the chemicals in our muscles to give us the energy to move and work.