Write the scope of science.
( Word limit 80-90)
Answers
Humans are curious by nature. This curiosity has driven them since time immemorial to explore the world around them. Initially the pace of exploration was slow. But with the availability of better tools of exploration in the last few hundred years and also as a result of industrial revolution in the west, the pace of exploration has increased manifold. Humans’ exploratory activities have resulted in the accumulation of a vast source of knowledge called natural science. In natural science, we study about nature which means the entire universe. The knowledge is now organized in several disciplines for the convenience of study. This knowledge is based on inquiry, observations and logical extensions, and is testable by experiment or has logically convincing explanation. It is this organized knowledge with inquiry, logical reasoning and experimentation as its central themes, that we call science. Science may rightly be said to be a domain of inquiry.
NATURE OF SCIENCE
Science has certain characteristics which distinguish it from other spheres of human endeavor. These characteristics define the nature of science. These also set the terms on which you can engage with science. These are discussed below.
· Science is a particular way of looking at nature
· Science is a rapidly expanding body of knowledge
· Science is an interdisciplinary area of learning
· Science is a truly international enterprise
· Science is always tentative
· Science promotes scepticism; scientists are highly sceptic people
· Science demands perseverance from its practitioners
· Science as an approach to investigation and as a process of constructing knowledge