Sciencie - Explanation and definition of science

What is science

Science is defined as the exploration and the search of the knowledge about ourselves and everything that are around us, through science we seek the laws that governing the operation of the universe in order to understand and control it. Etymologically the word science comes from the Latin "scientia" that it means knowledge.

Science represents the curiosity that humans have to understand why we are here and what are the natural laws that govern us, within the perceptible chaos of the universe through science we know that planets do not move arbitrarily, it describe elliptical orbits around a star, in other words through science we are eliminating the perceptible chaos in search of the fundamental laws that governing the universe and our existence.

We have to distinguish between science and philosophy, while philosophy explains the nature of man and the universe through the use of logical reasoning, science propose and demonstrate through the observation and experimentation our nature and the laws that govern the universe around us. We can say that philosophy is qualitative while science is quantitative.

During the last decades we can see like the expansion and knowledge aboutdifferent areas of science increases exponentially, the secret of this expansion lies in the need to understand and control all the natural phenomenon around us in order to use them to satisfy our needs, so we use the electrons of atoms as a resources of electrical power that feed all electronic equipment that we use everyday, we know the chemical and biological phenomena of the virus in order to eliminate them to improve our health or even we want to change our DNA in order to improve certain physical and mental characteristics.

History of science

The history of knowledge about ourselves and the universe begins with the origin of the humanity, our ancestors used their imagination in order to try to explain natural phenomena that was produced around them by creating imaginary gods who were worshiped in order to remove any evil they could occur as disease, drought or pests which were caused by the anger of the gods.

Together with these beliefs our ancestors observed the natural phenomenon and they tried to use it to their benefit, in this way we discovered the fire which we use to keep warm on cold nights and cook the hunted meat, we created the wheel, we developed language, create writing and began to make tools and weapons with minerals and metals that were in the nature.

Ancient civilizations such as the Sumerian, Egyptian or tiahuanacota have left evidence of scientific knowledge that they had, but was the ancient Greek the civilization than more scientific records left us, names as Thales, Archimedes, Euclid, Pythagoras and Democritus laid the fundamentals of modern science by using logical reasoning and the development of the first scientific experiments.

During the centuries of the Middle Ages in the ancient Europe the power of of the religions imposed its philosophy over scientific advances that were developed in other areas of the world, known as the Dark Ages all the scientific knowledge was reserved and concentrated in monasteries and power groups. Science at that time found refuge in Asian, Arabic and Mesoamerican civilizations where the study of science helped to create the first printing of books, the mill, the compass, gunpowder or matrix math.

In 1543 Nicolas Copernicus proved that the Earth moves around the Sun imposing the Heliocentric model over religious beliefs that made the Earth as center of the universe, this milestone is considered the beginning of the scientific renaissance where great scientists of the old Europe as Galilelo Galilei, Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton studied the nature discovering mathematical patterns which allowed them to predict and control the behavior of certain phenomena. The thermometer, microscope, telescope, or the law of universal gravitation are discoveries that belong in this time of the new dawn of science.

After the discoveries of Isaac Newton in various fields of science such as physics, mathematics and astronomy, science reborn in its entire splendor in old Europe, scientists like Faraday, Maxwell, Thomson and Darwin were allowed to meet the atom, dominate the electricity or recognize that we are an evolutionary branch of our "brothers" the chimpanzees.

Since the early 20th century to the present science has taken a special role in our lives, everything around us is the result of knowledge of our human nature and the universe, at this time the discovery of quantum physics that made us realize that we thought we knew in our world does not work on a microscopic scale. Planck, Einstein and Hubble are among other great scientists of this era in which we have known that the universe came after a huge explosion 13,800 billion years ago, our DNA contains all the genetic information or thanksto the relativity is possible travel against the time. The development of electronics, computers and telecommunications has played a key role in making a global world where we can communicate with anyone anywhere in the world.

Classification of sciences - Branches of science.

From the time when the ancient Pythagoreans recognized only geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music as branches of science until the present day where science covers a wide range of subjects and disciplines such as mathematics, biology, nanotechnology, computer science or geography ... we can classify and identify the branches or subjects that include science in different ways:

Depending on its application:

• Basic or pure science - are those who study the basic principles of the nature of man and the universe generating knowledge that will be the basis for all other subjects. Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology are considered as basic sciences.

• Applied sciences - are all other materials that rely on the studies of basic sciences to develop practical and tangible applications as technology and inventions. Aeronautics, Metallurgy, Medicine, Anthropology or Engineering are examples among others.

Depending on the mathematical basis:

• Exact Sciences - are those that are based on mathematical models that can predict or accurately estimate the behavior of a natural phenomenon. Also considered quantitative sciences can name as an example the Physics, Chemistry or Algebra among others.

• Descriptive Studies - In contrast to the exact sciencies the subjects contained on this branch no based its content on mathematical models, are qualitative science that describe the behavior of certain phenomena, examples such as psychology, botany, medicine or ecology belong to this branch of science.

Depending on the nature studied:

• Natural Sciences - are those that study natural phenomena of the universe. Astronomy, biology, chemistry or geography are examples among others.

• Social Sciences - are those that study the human behaviour and societies such as economics, linguistics, anthropology and psychology.

Clearly science has accompanied the humanity since its origin, the intrinsic curiosity of our nature has been the engine of the observation and investigation of ourselves and the universe around us, thanks to science someday may colonize new planets, live for extended periods of time, we will understand who we really are and what role we play in this vast universe.

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