S cience is a systematic and logical approach to understanding the natural world and the universe. Rooted in observation, experimentation, and analysis, science aims to generate reliable knowledge through evidence-based methods. It encompasses a wide range of disciplines, each contributing to our understanding of phenomena by asking questions, formulating hypotheses, and testing them rigorously.
The English word “science” originates from a Latin word “Scientia” which means “to know“. There will be no doubt in saying that “science” is another word for “knowledge”. Science is a system of gaining knowledge. In Sanskrit, the word “Vijyan” means “knowledge”.
The Process of Science
The process of science is creative and flexible. There is no single scientific method used by all scientists. Rather, scientists use a variety of tools and techniques to test their hypotheses about the natural world. In disciplines such as chemistry, experiments can be directly performed in laboratories, with control samples and repetition.
In disciplines using the methods of historical science, such as paleontology, scientists act more like forensic detectives, logically examining clues left behind at fossilized death scenes. In other disciplines, such as astronomy, experiments conducted on earth can help astronomers to understand processes faintly observed in distant stars.
All scientific conclusions are tentative—they will be changed if new evidence contradicts previous understandings. As Donald Prothero has written,
Science is not about finding final truth, only about testing and refining better and better hypotheses so these hypotheses approach what we think is true about the world.
Branches Of Science
Science is divided into four main branches. These are:
- Natural Sciences
- Social Sciences
- Formal Sciences
- Applied Sciences
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