Reflections on "How Science Works"

During the last few class periods, I have learned and further developed many of my understandings about concepts related to how science works. Science is based on evidence, in which ideas are constantly modified or changed based on the development of new evidence. Although many things in nature can be explained by science, not every question can be answered using scientific means. Conflict often arises when people attempt to combine science type thinking with that of faith based thinking because these two distinct philosophies of knowledge greatly contradict each other when it comes to explaining certain complex phenomena due to their differing purposes. Also, nothing can be proven with 100% accuracy or certainty, however scientists can attempt to provide more and more evidence in favor of a certain concept or way of thinking. The primary goals of science are to understand how things work and to gain knowledge about things in nature. Unlike technology, sciences purpose is not predominantly concerned with the application or use of their ideas in relation to benefiting society, rather it is motivated by curiosity to learn about nature and the universe. Another important distinction associated with science is that of the relationship between theories and laws. A theory is a well supported idea and contrary to common belief, a theory doesn’t become a law just because its has more evidence. Theories explain why something happens, and when more evidence is developed in its favor it simply becomes a “better supported theory.” A law on the other hand, tells us what happens, and is usually in the form of a simple statement that represents a mathematical equation or relationship.

Overall, the past few class discussions have been very beneficial in helping me refine and better understand many of the important concepts related to the study of science. In my past experiences with learning science, my teachers have typically bombarded us with a multitude of terms and it was really helpful to be able to go over and discuss the common misconceptions and fundamental concepts related to science in order to best understand the basic ideas. Rather than resort to useless memorization of a bunch of terms without having a clear framework in which to place them.