Tok science nothingnerdy
- 1. presents a production Natural Sciences in ToK 1 Image of fly: Robert Hooke, 1665
- 2. Science Knowledge about the natural world
- 3. Modern life Without Science, what is left? Is all Science progress? Do you know how your hard drive works? Can you really explain evolution? What is relativity? Does it matter if we understand it?
- 4. Types of Science A constantly changing and disputed list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_disciplines
- 5. Scientists Science is a human activity Goodall; Ibn Rushd; Mendeleev; Attenborough which involves many different activities including thinking, observing and communicating: Reason and Emotion; Sense Perception; Language. Image: scu Image: philosophybasics Image: Scientistsinformation Image: bbcearth
- 6. Paradigm the set of practices that define a scientific discipline at any particular period of time. More generally, it is a thought pattern in a particular area of knowledge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm A LITTLE GAME As you read this slideshow, count the number of different paradigms contained within. Solution at the end. Also, spot the Knowledge Issues, useful for presentations and essays.
- 7. Scientific Method A cycle of hypothesis and experiment Observations Questions Make new Hypothesis hypothesis Experiment Prediction again Experiment Experiment Experiment doesn’t support supports hypothesis hypothesis
- 8. Observation
- 9. Hypothesis How the Scientific Method should work I had made a mistake... It seems to me much better ... if you admit in Order the print that you were wrong boxes to tell The universe could have started out in a smooth the story. and ordered ... or lumpy and disordered state. Solution at Neither of these possibilities agrees the end. with what we observe... The universe would ... become lumpy and disordered as time went on Stephen Hawking - One has to use a quantum a Brief History of theory of gravity ... Time updated, Bantam, (1996) Some people never admit they are wrong...
- 10. Experiment An experiment is a methodical trial and error procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiment Is this really what we do in our IB Science IAs?
- 11. Sources of ideas Serendipity means a "happy Creativity refers to the accident" or "pleasant phenomenon whereby a person surprise"; specifically, the creates something new that has accident of finding something some kind of value. Wikipedia good or useful without looking for it. Wikipedia Research one of these interesting examples Hofmann and LSD Kekule and benzene Fleming and penicillin Leonardo Bequerel and radioactivity Frank Dyson Roentgen and X-rays Archimedes "In the fields of observation chance favours only the prepared mind." Louis Pasteur
- 12. Falsification scientific knowledge "consists in the search for truth", but it "is not the search for certainty ... All human knowledge is fallible and therefore uncertain." Popper, In Search of a Better World (1984) POPPER’S IDEAS: FILL IN THE BLANKS The A model of Science does not prove anything. One counter-example will B the hypothesis. Thus scientists should make their theories C. Science should proceed through a series of D and E. Scientists should adopt a F attitude called G. THESE WORDS: conjectures; critical; disprove; falsificationism inductivist; refutations; testable
- 13. Scientific Revolution Robert Hooke showed Robert Brown observed and that plants are made of named the “nucleus” compartments. In the seventeenth They remind him century, most scientists of monks’ “cells”. believed that life arose by spontaneous generation van Leeuwenhoek from dead matter. observed red blood cells and sperm Robert Remak first described the He still believed division of cells to make new ones. that new cells arose Put them in the right by spontaneous order; see solution later. generation.
- 14. According to Kuhn, a paradigm shift will occur when a significant number of observational anomalies in the old paradigm have made the new paradigm more useful. That is, the choice of a new paradigm is based on observations, even though those observations are made against the background of the old paradigm. A new paradigm is chosen because it does a better job of solving scientific problems than the old one. Wikipedia Image: stephencollins
- 15. Blue skies research "research without a clear goal" and "curiosity- driven science." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_skies_research “Einstein may have been viewed as an eccentric studying some interesting mathematical equations, with little real world application ... In designing the GPS system, the relativity effects have to be taken into account.” “Another example of research whose downstream applications may not have been predicted at the time is Tim Berners-Lee’s invention of the World Wide Web (WWW), dubbed the WWW project.” scienceoxfordonline.com
- 16. Error in Science All of the exoplanets observed orbiting other stars are large. Does this mean that all exoplanets are large? During the Great Plague in London in 1665, they noticed that wherever there was plague there were cats. They killed the cats. The plague got worse. Confirmation bias is a tendency of people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias The speed of light in vacuum, usually denoted by c, is a universal physical constant important in many areas of physics. Its value is 299,792,458 metres per second, a figure that is exact since the length of the metre is defined from this constant
- 17. Peer review What is the meaning of the highlighted words and how do they make Scientific knowledge more certain? Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility. In academia peer review is often used to determine an academic paper's suitability for publication. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_review
- 18. Scientific Ethics From the IB Subject Guide, IBO (2006) Should scientists be held morally responsible for the applications of their discoveries? Is there any area of scientific knowledge the pursuit of which is morally unacceptable or morally required? Is science, or ought it to be, value-free? What implications does your answer have for the regulation of science? For example: Who should decide whether particular directions in research are pursued? Who should determine priorities in the funding of research?
- 19. Science and Reason “It is said that science will dehumanise people and turn them into numbers. That is false, tragically false. Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.” Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man (1973)
- 20. Science Language “So wormholes, like any other form of travel faster than light, would allow one to travel into the past.” Stephen Hawking “Lex I: Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo quiescendi vel movendi uniformiter in directum, nisi quatenus a viribus impressis cogitur statum illum mutare.” Isaac Newton Image:quantummechanics Image: DNA sequencing service
- 21. Culture and Science Can you distinguish myth from reality? China Europe Paper 2nd cent BCE 13th cent CE Gunpowder 9th cent CE 1248 CE Printing 220 CE 1400 CE Magnetic 2nd cent BCE 1300 CE compass Do different cultures do Science in different ways?
- 22. International Science What are the advantages for scientifically literate nations? The National Academy of Sciences says China has moved from 14th place to 2nd place behind the United States in the number of studies published. China has also become one of the leading exporters of high technology and aims to make more advances in environmentally friendly technologies. China has also begun a program to “buy back” native scientists who were trained in other countries, Leshner said. “China’s commitment to science is very clear.” Source: redOrbit (http://s.tt/16bQ2) accessed March 2012
- 23. DWEM Science? Is the History of Science really the story of the achievements of some Dead White European Males? Caroline Herschel Image: MPax
- 24. Science and Religion They describe the same things in different ways. Many scientists believe in God. Most do not. Lord Shiva dances the CMBR is the light from universe into existence the early universe. Image: Wikipedia Image: Weber
- 25. Pseudo-science What’s your evidence? Can your claims be tested? What is an expert? What could prove that you are wrong?
- 26. Solutions Paradigm Count: To be honest, Sci Rev I stopped counting at ten VBOYGIR A inductivist B disprove C testable Hypoth D conjectures E refutations GYOVIRB F critical G falsificationism
- 27. wikipedia Most of my definitions come from wikipedia because I have found it more reliable than most other sources. If someone tells you it’s not a good source, ask them: What’s your evidence? Any tool can do a bad job in the wrong hands.
- 28. a production MUCH MORE AT http://nothingnerdy.wikispaces.com http://nothingnerdy.wikispaces.com/LINK 28