The word "science" probably brings to mind many different pictures: a fat textbook, white lab coats and microscopes, an astronomer peering through a telescope, a naturalist in the rainforest, Einstein's equations scribbled on a chalkboard, the launch of the space shuttle, bubbling beakers …. All of those images reflect some aspect of science, but none of them provides a full picture because science has so many facets:
These images all show an aspect of science, but a complete view of science is more than any particular instance.
Science asks questions about the natural world.Science studies the natural world. This includes the components of the physical universe around us like atoms, plants, ecosystems, people, societies and galaxies, as well as the natural forces at work on those things. In contrast, science cannot study supernatural forces and explanations. For example, the idea that a supernatural afterlife exists is not a part of science since this afterlife operates outside the rules that govern the natural world.
- Anything in the natural world — from exotic ecosystems to urban smog — can be the subject of scientific inquiry.
- Science can investigate all sorts of questions:
- When did the oldest rocks on earth form?
- Through what chemical reactions do fungi get energy from the nutrients they absorb?
- What causes Jupiter's red spot?
- How does smog move through the atmosphere?
- Very few questions are off-limits in science — but the sorts of answers
- science can provide are limited. Science can only answer in terms of natural phenomena and natural processes. When we ask ourselves questions like, What is the meaning of life? and Does the soul exist? we generally expect answers that are outside of the natural world — and hence, outside of science.
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