Characteristics of a Scientist: Curiosity, Creativity, and Commitment The Three C’s

Science Defined by its way of thinking Scientists ask questions Not defined by its technology or its accomplishments Scientists ask questions You can ask questions about anything Scientists must tolerate uncertainty, because some questions cannot be easily or quickly answered

Scientists Endless curiosity Pervasive skepticism Prepared minds Challenging old ideas Proposing new idea Sometimes upsetting authorities Prepared minds Recognizing interesting phenomena

Science and Art Often thought of as polar opposites Science as precise and constrained Art as free flowing and creative This dichotomy is false Scientists and artists share a creative drive to understand and represent reality Creative people are often gifted in both science and art (e.g., Leonardo da Vinci)

Acquiring Knowledge Tenacity: “It has always been that way.” Intuition: “It feels true.” Authority: “The boss says it is true.” Rationalism: “It makes sense logically.” Empiricism: “I observed it to be true.” Science: A combination of rationalism and empiricism.

Rationalism Using reason (logic) to derive new knowledge from old knowledge Reliable conclusions can be derived from established facts if one uses logic. Limitation By itself, rationalism has no way of verifying the accuracy of the facts.

Empiricism Naïve Empiricism Sophisticated Empiricism Literally need to see it to believe it Severely limits what could be studied, because many interesting things cannot be directly observed (e.g., gravity) Sophisticated Empiricism Allows one to study both things you can see directly other things that produce effects you can see and measure Accepts indirect evidence

Science Rationalism Empiricism To derive theories from existing observations To derive predictions from theories to test empirically Empiricism To provide the initial facts on which theories might rest To test the predictions from theories by seeing if they are accurate

History of Science Science developed over thousands of years Combination of rationalism and empiricism Sometimes empiricism dominated Sometimes rationalism dominated Eventually they were combined into science as we know it

Early Civilization Early civilizations developed practical skills Passed from generation to generation Focus was on the practical, rather than the abstract principles Orderliness belief: The universe behaves in an orderly, lawful manner

Greek Science Greeks contributed much to science Thales was one of the first to combine rationalism and empiricism. Strato introduced experimentation. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle moved away from empiricism to an emphasis on rationalism as a way to understand what they believed was a mystical universe.

Medieval Science Research in the service of religion To demonstrate the hand of God Some religious scholars encouraged research Thomas Aquinas & Roger Bacon Science eventually becoming a tool in the “service of humanity” But science and religion clashed

The Scientific Revolution Based on Rediscovery of earlier scholarship New discoveries with immediate benefits The new universities nourish science and research Increased scientific understanding fueled technological development

Modern Science Vast enterprise Remarkable new discoveries Supported by governments Valuable to society Tremendous growth in the last century Remarkable new discoveries Which led to new technologies Which led to more discoveries

Summary Science is a way of thinking Many ways to gain knowledge, science being one of them Science combines rationalism and empiricism Science has a long history built originally on the practical values of empiricism Modern science is a huge social enterprise

Noted Scientist: Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519 The prototype for the Renaissance Man Artist, engineer, inventor, anatomist Integrated art and science seamlessly

Noted Scientist: Sir Isaac Newton "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" called "Principia" is acknowledged as the greatest scientific book ever published. Sir Isaac Newton wrote this in 1687.

Note Scientist: Charles Darwin 1809-1882 One of the people who developed the theory of evolution through natural selection. Arguably the most significant scientist in history.

Noted Scientist: Albert Einstein He is certainly at the pinnacle, if the popularity of all the scientists is taken into account. He demonstrated solutions to a trio of mind-boggling topics in physics in 1905 and shot into the limelight.