The Meaning of Science ~ Its History and Branches

The word science originates from the Latin language. There it is called “scientia” and means knowledge.

Looking up the word “science” in Webster’s New Dictionary we find: “knowledge attained through study or practice“. Reading on it says “covering general truths of the operation of general laws, especially as obtained and tested through scientific method and concerned with the physical world.”

In other words, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge. This system uses experimentation  and observation to describe and explain natural phenomena. The term science also refers to the organized body of knowledge people have gained using that system.

Until the late 20th century, the history of science, especially of the physical and biological sciences, was seen as a narrative of true theories replacing false ones. Science was portrayed as a major dimension of the progress of civilization. Recent historical interpretations view science in terms of competing paradigms or conceptual systems battling for intellectual supremacy in a wider matrix that includes intellectual, cultural, economic and political themes outside pure science.

Science as defined above is sometimes called pure science to differentiate it from applied science, which is the application of research to human needs. Fields of science are commonly classified along two major lines:

First, the natural sciences such as biology, chemistry, physics, earth science, and environmental science.

Second, the social sciences such as political science, linguistics, economics, psychology, sociology and anthropology.

Physics has been a paragon of the natural sciences.  It deals with matter and energy in space and time. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena covering enormous scales: from the subatomic particles to the Universe as a whole. All laws and forces of nature originate from mathematical symmetries of space and time, so modern physics currently focuses on studying these symmetries.

There are number of physical theories that became world famous. For example, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. It states we only can know the position of an electron with a high degree of certainty, but not its momentum and vice versa.

Another famous theory is Albert Einsteins Theory of General Relativity.  In his theory Einstein showed that space and time are not absolutes and that gravity is not simply a force applied to an object or mass. Rather, the gravity associated with any mass curves the very space and time (often called space-time) around it.

Lastly, The Big Bang Theory is also attributed to the field of physics. It postulates that the universe began 13.7 billion years ago with a massive expansion event.  The Big Bang Theory has recently gained popularity though the TV show that was named after it.

Biology is another important science in the group of natural sciences. It deals with the study of life. It describes the characteristics, classification, and behaviors of organisms, how species come into existence, and the interactions they have with each other and with the environment. Biology has many specialized areas, covering a wide range of scales, from Biochemistry to ecology.

Probably the most famous theory in the field of biology is Charles Darwin’s theory of Evolution and Natural Selection. This theory accounts for the tremendous diversity of life on Earth and so famously declared that we humans originate from primates (monkeys).

Should you be interested in any of these branches of science I recommend to talk to one of our 3800 science tutors.