A Definition of Science

or rather "What is Science after all"

[Oh my! I thought that I would be punctual but then there were all sorts of strange issues that came up. First, there was some moving from one town to another and I've not still not settled down. Plus there is a search of new opportunities in my career. In short, too busy. Lets now give some thought.

In the meantime, I met an German who said I'm discussing globalization at the wrong time !! He feels that I should have been discussing this is circa 1600AD in the pre-colonialism times. Another person, in the same breadth, said that earlier there were no passports, visas with free-trade and laissez-faire capitalism along the silk-route. Clearly, something happened on the way and hundreds of years later we are discussing the questions that were already taken for granted. A point to discuss. Next item.

Another person, after reading my blog commented that I've changed the definition of globalization as what I'm projecting as globalization is not what the “man in the street” considers that. I was interacting with him for a “write-up” of what is Science – but we didn't consider a “man-in-the-street” on what Science is. This document came up as in input to a discussion on something else In a fortcoming blog, I'll discuss on the issue - what is globalization as perceived by a "man-in-the-street" and what it actually is!

Here goes the writeup.]

Science

We have developed today a branch of knowledge called Science. Incidentally the word Science comes from the Latin word for knowledge. It is time we understand what it is and define it for the common man.

There are two thing here – (a) the body of knowledge and (b) the mechanism or factory that generates this body of knowledge. Like in the conventional world, it is the “factory” that is more important than the product. After all, if all the products do vanish, the factory can replenish the lost products.

Science is more about this “factory or machinery” or, technically speaking, “the scientific method” than the body of knowledge so acquired. If tomorrow, by some magic wand, the body of knowledge disappears leaving the “machinery” in place then this machinery would regenerate the body of knowledge we have lost.

So what is the “Scientific Method”? There are three aspects to it: (a) observing a phenomenon, (b) making a hypothesis or a model and (c) verifying the model with the further observations and experimentation.

The importance here is (c). Based on the hypothesis we make some predictions. These predictions are tested in the real world. This is called experimentation. By finding numerous such predictions and testing them repeatedly, we validate the theory.

However, with time some weaknesses of the theory are experienced. At that time, the process (observation/hypothesis/experimentation) repeats and we come up with a more accurate model that addresses earlier weaknesses.

Note this aspect of the mechanism of Science. Like a real factory goes on to make more refined products based on “customer feedbacks”, the mechanism of Science too produces more refined theories based on what it learns from the real world.

To summarize, Science is body of knowledge produced by a mechanism which makes progressively more accurate predictions.

The Methodology of Science

For the interested reader, we delve a bit deep into the Methodology of Science with an example.

In 1818, a young French physicist, Augustin-Jean Fresnel submitted a paper to the French Académie des Sciences for a competition. This paper was on diffraction where Fresnel was proposing a then heretical concept called the wave-theory of light. The committee was not disposed to the wave-theory of light and liked the Newton’s corpuscular theory instead. One of the judges, Poisson laughed out at this theory and derided saying (with mathematical support) that as a consequence of this theory the shadow of a circular disk would have a bright spot at its center! Another judge, Arago decided to experiment this consequence and to everyone’s surprise there was a bright spot at the center. This is known as Poisson’s spot or disk. The joke was on Poisson!! Needless to say, Fresnel won the competition!

This story underscores how the scientists work – albeit the intentions in this case. Poisson did a very important analysis. He used Fresnel’s theory to make a prediction. He predicted, correctly albeit sarcastically, that if Fresnel’s theory were to be true, then we would have a counter-intuitive case of a shadow of a circular disk with a bright spot in the center.

This leads to another aspect of Scientific Methodology – the falsifiablity test. Poisson set up a test to debunk the theory. He proposed an experiment whose failure would automatically put to rest this theory. Notice this point. For a theory to be considered “scientific”, the necessary condition is that this theory must prevent or forbid something. In this case, the Poisson said that if the wave theory were to be true then that theory would forbid the presence of darkness at the center of the shadow of a circular disk. This was because the diffracting light from the edges would form constructive interference at the center of the shadow. Accordingly, the wave theory of light forbids darkness at the center of the shadow. This was a test to debunk the theory.

A factory sends out products to the real world from usage we learn its weaknesses. We then produce a more refined product and the process goes on. So does Scientific Methodology. Theories have exceptions in corner cases e.g. Newtonian mechanics fails at certain conditions. To that end, the factory has better products that address, successfully, these corner cases. Scientific Methodology, like the factory, progressively comes out with theories that make more and more accurate predictions.

Summary

To summarize, Science is a body of knowledge generated out a mechanism called “Scientific Methodology”. Accordingly, Science is more of a method that a body of knowledge.

Scientific Methodology is a mechanism which has a theory as a basis. Theories are used to make predictions. A scientific theory is one where one can devise an experiment to debunk it. And finally, the methodology assures progressive accuracy of the prediction of the scientific theories.