Science (from the Latin scientia, 'knowledge'), in the broadest sense, refers to any systematic knowledge or practice.[1] In a more restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on the scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research.[2][3] This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word.
Fields of science are commonly classified along two major lines:
These groupings are empirical sciences, which means the knowledge must be based on observablephenomena and capable of being experimented for its validity by other researchers working under the same conditions.[4]
Mathematics, which is sometimes classified within a third group of science called formal science, has both similarities and differences with the natural and social sciences.[3] It is similar to empirical sciences in that it involves an objective, careful and systematic study of an area of knowledge; it is different because of its method of verifying its knowledge, using a priori rather than empirical methods.[5] Formal science, which also includes statistics and logic, is vital to the empirical sciences. Major advances in formal science have often led to major advances in the physical and biological sciences. The formal sciences are essential in the formation of hypotheses, theories, and laws,[6] both in discovering and describing how things work (natural sciences) and how people think and act (social sciences).
Science as discussed in this article is sometimes termed experimental science to differentiate it from applied science, which is the application of scientific research to specific human needs, though the two are often interconnected.
The word science comes through the Old French, and is derived from the Latin word scientia for knowledge, which in turn comes from scio, "I know". The Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root that yields scio is *skei-, and it means "cut, separate, or discern". Other words from the same root include Sanskritchyati, "he cuts off", Greekschizo, "I split" (hence English schism, schizophrenia), Latin scindo, "I split" (hence English rescind).[7] From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, science or scientia meant any systematic recorded knowledge.[8]Science therefore had the same sort of very broad meaning that philosophy had at that time. In other languages, including French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, the word corresponding to science also carries this meaning.
From classical times until the advent of the modern era, "philosophy" was roughly divided into natural philosophy and moral philosophy. In the 1800s, the term natural philosophy gradually gave way to the term natural science. Natural science was gradually specialized to its current domain, which typically includes the physical sciences and biological sciences. The social sciences, inheriting portions of the realm of moral philosophy, are currently also included under the auspices of science to the extent that these disciplines use empirical methods. As currently understood, moral philosophy still retains the study of ethics, regarded as a branch of philosophy.
Today, the primary meaning of "science" is generally limited to empirical science involving use of the scientific method.[9] Examples of the broader use include political science and computer science, which are named according to an older and more general use of the word "science".
^http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/science Merriam Webster definition of science, Retrieved September 12, 2007 "2 a : a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study <the science of theology> b : something (as a sport or technique) that may be studied or learned like systematized knowledge <have it down to a science>"
The Vega Science Trust Hours of science video including scientific lectures (Feynman, Kroto, Davis, etc.), discussions (nanotechnology, GM, stem cells, etc.), career programmes, interviews with Nobel Laureates, and school resources.
United States Science Initiative. Selected science information provided by U.S. Government agencies, including research and development results.
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