{{Short description|Systematic endeavour to gain knowledge}} {{pp-semi-indef}} {{pp-move}} {{For-multi|the journal|Science (journal){{!}}''Science'' (journal)|a topical guide|Outline of science|other uses}} {{Use British English|date=December 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}} {{CS1 config|mode=cs1}} {{Science}} '''Science''' is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=E. O. |url=https://archive.org/details/consilienceunity00wils_135 |title=Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge |publisher=Vintage |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-679-76867-8 |edition=Reprint |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/consilienceunity00wils_135/page/n55 49]–71 |chapter=The natural sciences |url-access=limited}}</ref>{{rp|pp=49-71}}<ref name="Heilbron2003">{{cite book |last=Heilbron |first=J. L. |author-link=J. L. Heilbron |title=The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-19-511229-0 |location=New York |pages=vii–x |chapter=Preface |quote=...modern science is a discovery as well as an invention. It was a discovery that nature generally acts regularly enough to be described by laws and even by mathematics; and required invention to devise the techniques, abstractions, apparatus, and organization for exhibiting the regularities and securing their law-like descriptions. |display-authors=etal}}</ref> Modern science is typically divided into two{{snd}}or three{{snd}}major branches:<ref name="Cohen2021">{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Eliel |url=https://www.routledge.com/The-University-and-its-Boundaries-Thriving-or-Surviving-in-the-21st-Century/Cohen/p/book/9780367562984 |title=The University and its Boundaries: Thriving or Surviving in the 21st Century |publisher=Routledge |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-367-56298-4 |location=New York |pages=14–41 |chapter=The boundary lens: theorising academic activity |access-date=4 May 2021 |archive-date=5 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505045450/https://www.routledge.com/The-University-and-its-Boundaries-Thriving-or-Surviving-in-the-21st-Century/Cohen/p/book/9780367562984 |url-status=live}}</ref> the natural sciences, which study the physical world, and the social sciences, which study individuals and societies.<ref name="Colander2019">{{cite book |last1=Colander |first1=David C. |title=Social Science: An Introduction to the Study of Society |last2=Hunt |first2=Elgin F. |year=2019 |publisher=Routledge |edition=17th |location=New York |pages=1–22 |chapter=Social science and its methods}}</ref><ref name="Nisbet2020">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Social Science |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-science |access-date=9 May 2021 |date=16 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220202193947/https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-science |archive-date=2 February 2022 |last2=Greenfeld |first2=Liah |last1=Nisbet |first1=Robert A. |url-status=live}}</ref> While referred to as the formal sciences, the study of logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science are typically regarded as separate because they rely on deductive reasoning instead of the scientific method as their main methodology.<ref name="Kluwer">{{cite book |last1=Bishop |first1=Alan |title=Mathematical Enculturation: A Cultural Perspective on Mathematics Education |publisher=Kluwer |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-7923-1270-3 |location=Norwell, MA |pages=20–59 |chapter=Environmental activities and mathematical culture |access-date=24 March 2018 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9AgrBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA54}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bunge |first1=Mario |title=Philosophy of Science: Volume 1, From Problem to Theory |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-7658-0413-6 |edition=revised |volume=1 |location=New York |pages=3–50 |chapter=The Scientific Approach}}</ref><ref name="Fetzer2013">{{cite book |last1=Fetzer |first1=James H. |title=Computers and Cognition: Why Minds are not Machines |publisher=Kluwer |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4438-1946-6 |location=Newcastle, United Kingdom |pages=271–308 |chapter=Computer reliability and public policy: Limits of knowledge of computer-based systems}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nickles |first1=Thomas |title=Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |year=2013 |page=104 |chapter=The Problem of Demarcation}}</ref> Meanwhile, applied sciences are disciplines that use scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as engineering and medicine.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fischer |first1=M. R. |last2=Fabry |first2=G |year=2014 |title=Thinking and acting scientifically: Indispensable basis of medical education |journal=GMS Zeitschrift für Medizinische Ausbildung |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=Doc24 |doi=10.3205/zma000916 |pmc=4027809 |pmid=24872859}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sinclair |first=Marius |year=1993 |title=On the Differences between the Engineering and Scientific Methods |url=https://www.ijee.ie/contents/c090593.html |url-status=live |journal=The International Journal of Engineering Education |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171115220102/https://www.ijee.ie/contents/c090593.html |archive-date=15 November 2017 |access-date=7 September 2018}}</ref><ref name="Bunge1966">{{Cite book |last=Bunge |first=M. |title=Contributions to a Philosophy of Technology |publisher=Springer |year=1966 |isbn=978-94-010-2184-5 |editor-last=Rapp |editor-first=F. |location=Dordrecht |pages=19–39 |chapter=Technology as Applied Science |doi=10.1007/978-94-010-2182-1_2 |s2cid=110332727}}</ref>
The history of science spans the majority of the historical record, with the earliest identifiable predecessors to modern science dating to the Bronze Age in Egypt and Mesopotamia ({{circa|3000–1200 BCE}}). Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped the Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity and later medieval scholarship, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes; while further advances, including the introduction of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, were made during the Golden Age of India and Islamic Golden Age.<ref name="Lindberg2007">{{Cite book |last=Lindberg |first=David C. |title=The beginnings of Western science: the European Scientific tradition in philosophical, religious, and institutional context |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-226-48205-7 |edition=2nd}}</ref>{{rp|p=12}}<ref name="Grant2007a"> {{cite book |last=Grant |first=Edward |title=A History of Natural Philosophy: From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-521-68957-1 |location=New York }}</ref>{{rp|pp=1–26}}<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=rMAaBgAAQBAJ Building Bridges Among the BRICs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418081025/https://books.google.com/books?id=rMAaBgAAQBAJ |date=18 April 2023 }}, p. 125, Robert Crane, Springer, 2014</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Keay |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/indiahistory00keay/page/132 |title=India: A history |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-87113-800-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/indiahistory00keay/page/132 132] |quote=The great era of all that is deemed classical in Indian literature, art and science was now dawning. It was this crescendo of creativity and scholarship, as much as ... political achievements of the Guptas, which would make their age so golden. |author-link=John Keay}}</ref><ref name="Lindberg2007" />{{rp|pp=163–192}}
The recovery and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic inquiries into Western Europe during the Renaissance revived natural philosophy,<ref name="Lindberg2007" />{{rp|pp=193–224, 225–253}}<ref>Sease, Virginia; Schmidt-Brabant, Manfrid. Thinkers, Saints, Heretics: Spiritual Paths of the Middle Ages. 2007. [https://books.google.com/books?id=8Lkzp-StZGUC&dq=%22Everything+we+would+today+call+science+came+through+Islam%22&pg=PA80 Pages 80–81] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240827070053/https://books.google.com/books?id=8Lkzp-StZGUC&dq=%22Everything%20we%20would%20today%20call%20science%20came%20through%20Islam%22&pg=PA80 |date=27 August 2024 }}. Retrieved 6 October 2023.</ref> which was later transformed by the Scientific Revolution that began in the 16th century<ref>{{cite book |last=Principe |first=Lawrence M. |title=Scientific Revolution: A Very Short Introduction |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-19-956741-6 |location=New York |pages=1–3 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> as new ideas and discoveries departed from previous Greek conceptions and traditions.<ref name="Lindberg2007" />{{rp|pp=357–368}}<ref name="Grant2007a" />{{rp|pp=274–322}} The scientific method soon played a greater role in the acquisition of knowledge, and in the 19th century, many of the institutional and professional features of science began to take shape,<ref>{{cite book |title=From Natural Philosophy to the Sciences: Writing the History of Nineteenth-Century Science |year=2003 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-08928-7 |editor1-last=Cahan |editor1-first=David}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lightman |first1=Bernard |title=Wrestling with Nature: From Omens to Science |year=2011 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-31783-0 |editor1-last=Shank |editor1-first=Michael |page=367 |chapter=13. Science and the Public |editor2-last=Numbers |editor2-first=Ronald |editor3-last=Harrison |editor3-first=Peter}}</ref> along with the changing of "natural philosophy" to "natural science".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harrison |first1=Peter |title=The Territories of Science and Religion |year=2015 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-18451-7 |pages=164–165 |quote=The changing character of those engaged in scientific endeavors was matched by a new nomenclature for their endeavors. The most conspicuous marker of this change was the replacement of "natural philosophy" by "natural science". In 1800 few had spoken of the "natural sciences" but by 1880 this expression had overtaken the traditional label "natural philosophy". The persistence of "natural philosophy" in the twentieth century is owing largely to historical references to a past practice (see figure 11). As should now be apparent, this was not simply the substitution of one term by another, but involved the jettisoning of a range of personal qualities relating to the conduct of philosophy and the living of the philosophical life. |author-link1=Peter Harrison (historian)}}</ref>
New knowledge in science is advanced by research from scientists who are motivated by curiosity about the world and a desire to solve problems.<ref>{{cite book |last=MacRitchie |first=Finlay |url=https://www.routledge.com/Scientific-Research-as-a-Career/MacRitchie/p/book/9781439869659 |title=Scientific Research as a Career |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4398-6965-9 |location=New York |pages=1–6 |chapter=Introduction |access-date=5 May 2021 |archive-date=5 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505074020/https://www.routledge.com/Scientific-Research-as-a-Career/MacRitchie/p/book/9781439869659 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Marder |first=Michael P. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/research-methods-for-science/1C04E5D747781B68C52A79EE86BF584B |title=Research Methods for Science |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-521-14584-8 |location=New York |pages=1–17 |chapter=Curiosity and research |access-date=5 May 2021 |archive-date=5 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505001547/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/research-methods-for-science/1C04E5D747781B68C52A79EE86BF584B |url-status=live}}</ref> Contemporary scientific research is often highly collaborative and is frequently carried out by teams in academic and research institutions,<ref>{{cite book |last=de Ridder |first=Jeroen |url=https://www.routledge.com/What-is-Scientific-Knowledge-An-Introduction-to-Contemporary-Epistemology/McCain-Kampourakis/p/book/9781138570153 |title=What is Scientific Knowledge? An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology of Science |publisher=Routledge |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-138-57016-0 |editor-last1=McCain |editor-first1=Kevin |location=New York |pages=3–17 |chapter=How many scientists does it take to have knowledge? |access-date=5 May 2021 |editor-last2=Kampourakis |editor-first2=Kostas |archive-date=5 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505044353/https://www.routledge.com/What-is-Scientific-Knowledge-An-Introduction-to-Contemporary-Epistemology/McCain-Kampourakis/p/book/9781138570153 |url-status=live}}</ref> government agencies,<ref name="Lindberg2007" />{{rp|pp=163–192}} and companies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Szycher |first=Michael |url=https://www.routledge.com/Commercialization-Secrets-for-Scientists-and-Engineers/Szycher/p/book/9781498730600 |title=Commercialization Secrets for Scientists and Engineers |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-138-40741-1 |location=New York |pages=159–176 |chapter=Establishing your dream team |access-date=5 May 2021 |archive-date=18 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818032914/https://www.routledge.com/Commercialization-Secrets-for-Scientists-and-Engineers/Szycher/p/book/9781498730600 |url-status=live}}</ref> At the same time, many major advances—particularly in fundamental science—have come from individual researchers and are widely recognised through major international awards such as the Nobel Prize. The practical results of scientific work have led to the emergence of science policies that seek to prioritise the responsible development of commercial products, health care, public infrastructure, environmental protection, and defense capabilities.
== Etymology == The word ''science'' has been used in English since the 14th century (Middle English) in the sense of "the state of knowing". The word was borrowed from the Anglo-Norman language as the suffix {{lang|xno|-cience}}, which was borrowed from the Latin word {{lang|la|scientia}}, meaning {{gloss|knowledge, awareness, understanding}}, a noun derivative of {{lang|la|sciens}} meaning {{gloss|knowing}}, itself the present active participle of {{wikt-lang|la|sciō}} {{gloss|to know}}.<ref>{{cite dictionary |title=Science |encyclopedia=Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/science |access-date=16 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190901035713/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/science |archive-date=1 September 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>
There are many hypotheses for ''science''{{'}}s ultimate word origin. According to Michiel de Vaan, Dutch linguist and Indo-Europeanist, {{lang|la|sciō}} may have its origin in the Proto-Italic language as {{lang|itc-x-proto|*skije-}} or {{lang|itc-x-proto|*skijo-}} meaning {{gloss|to know}}, which may originate from Proto-Indo-European language as {{lang|ine-x-proto|skh<sub>1</sub>-ie}}, {{lang|ine-x-proto|skh<sub>1</sub>-io}} meaning {{gloss|to incise}}. The ''Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben'' proposed {{lang|la|sciō}} is a back-formation of {{lang|la|nescīre}}, meaning {{gloss|to not know, be unfamiliar with}}, which may derive from Proto-Indo-European ''{{lang|ine-x-proto|sekH-}}'' in Latin {{lang|la|secāre}}, or {{lang|ine-x-proto|skh<sub>2</sub>-}} from {{lang|ine-x-proto|sḱʰeh2(i)-}} meaning {{gloss|to cut}}.<ref>{{Cite dictionary |year=2008 |title=sciō |dictionary=Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages |url=https://archive.org/details/m-de-vaan-2008-etymological-dictionary-of-latin-and-the-other-italic-languages/page/544/ |last=Vaan |first=Michiel de |author-link=Michiel de Vaan |series=Indo-European Etymological Dictionary |page=545 |isbn=978-90-04-16797-1}}</ref><!-- I honestly do not understand some of the last sentences in the source -->
In the past, science was a synonym for "knowledge" or "study", in keeping with its Latin origin. A person who conducted scientific research was called a "natural philosopher" or "man of science".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cahan |first=David |title=From natural philosophy to the sciences: writing the history of nineteenth-century science |year=2003 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0-226-08927-4 |pages=3–15}}</ref> In 1834, William Whewell introduced the term ''scientist'' in a review of Mary Somerville's book ''On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ross |first=Sydney |year=1962 |title=Scientist: The story of a word |journal=Annals of Science |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=65–85 |doi=10.1080/00033796200202722 |doi-access=free}}</ref> crediting it to "some ingenious gentleman" (possibly himself).<ref>{{cite OED|scientist}}</ref>
== History == {{History of science sidebar}} {{Main|History of science}}
=== Early history<span class="anchor" id="Earliest roots"></span> === {{Main|Science in the ancient world}} [[File:Megaliths Aswan Nubia museum.JPG|left|thumb|Megaliths from Nabta Playa, constructed by Neolithic populations to coordinate astronomical observations located in Aswan, Upper Egypt.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ehret |first1=Christopher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5KjEAAAQBAJ |title=Ancient Africa: A Global History, to 300 CE |date=20 June 2023 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-24409-9 |page=107 |language=en}}</ref>]] [[File:Plimpton 322.jpg|thumb|The Plimpton 322 tablet by the Babylonians records Pythagorean triples, written {{circa|1800 BCE}}|alt=Clay tablet with markings, three columns for numbers and one for ordinals]]
Science has no single origin. Rather, scientific thinking emerged gradually over the course of tens of thousands of years,<ref>{{Citation |last=Carruthers |first=Peter |title=The roots of scientific reasoning: infancy, modularity and the art of tracking |date=2 May 2002 |work=The Cognitive Basis of Science |pages=73–96 |editor-last=Carruthers |editor-first=Peter |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511613517.005 |isbn=978-0-521-81229-0 |editor2-last=Stich |editor2-first=Stephen |editor3-last=Siegal |editor3-first=Michael}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lombard |first1=Marlize |last2=Gärdenfors |first2=Peter |year=2017 |title=Tracking the Evolution of Causal Cognition in Humans |journal=Journal of Anthropological Sciences |volume=95 |issue=95 |pages=219–234 |doi=10.4436/JASS.95006 |pmid=28489015 |issn=1827-4765}}</ref> taking different forms around the world, and few details are known about the very earliest developments. Women likely played a central role in prehistoric science,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Graeber |first1=David |last2=Wengrow |first2=David |author-link1=David Graeber |author-link2=David Wengrow |year=2021 |title=The Dawn of Everything |title-link=The Dawn of Everything |page=248}}</ref> as did religious rituals.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Faerie Smith Meets the Bronze Industry: Magic Versus Science in the Interpretation of Prehistoric Metal-Making |jstor=124782 |last1=Budd |first1=Paul |last2=Taylor |first2=Timothy |journal=World Archaeology |year=1995 |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=133–143 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1995.9980297 |bibcode=1995WoArc..27..133B }}</ref> Some scholars use the term "protoscience" to label activities in the past that resemble modern science in some but not all features;<ref>{{cite book |last=Tuomela |first=Raimo |year=1987 |chapter=Science, Protoscience, and Pseudoscience |editor-last1=Pitt |editor-first1=J. C. |editor-last2=Pera |editor-first2=M. |title=Rational Changes in Science |series=Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science |volume=98 |pages=83–101 |publisher=Springer |location=Dordrecht |doi=10.1007/978-94-009-3779-6_4 |isbn=978-94-010-8181-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1086/599864 |first=Pamela H. |last=Smith |title=Science on the Move: Recent Trends in the History of Early Modern Science |journal=Renaissance Quarterly |volume=62 |number=2 |year=2009 |pages=345–375 |pmid=19750597 |s2cid=43643053}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fleck |first=Robert |date=March 2021 |title=Fundamental Themes in Physics from the History of Art |journal=Physics in Perspective |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=25–48 |doi=10.1007/s00016-020-00269-7 |bibcode=2021PhP....23...25F |s2cid=253597172 |issn=1422-6944 |doi-access=free}}</ref> however, this label has also been criticised as denigrating,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Scott |first=Colin |encyclopedia=The Postcolonial Science and Technology Studies Reader |title=Science for the West, Myth for the Rest? |chapter=The Case of James Bay Cree Knowledge Construction |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham, NC |editor-last=Harding |editor-first=Sandra |isbn=978-0-8223-4936-5 |year=2011 |pages=175–197 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv11g96cc.16 |jstor=j.ctv11g96cc.16}}</ref> or too suggestive of presentism, thinking about those activities only in relation to modern categories.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1177/007327531205000203 |first=Peter |last=Dear |title=Historiography of Not-So-Recent Science |journal=History of Science |volume=50 |number=2 |year=2012 |pages=197–211 |s2cid=141599452}}</ref>
Direct evidence for scientific processes becomes clearer with the advent of writing systems in the Bronze Age civilisations of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia ({{circa|3000–1200 BCE}}), creating the earliest written records in the history of science.<ref name="Lindberg2007" />{{rp|pp=12–15}}<ref name="Grant2007a" /> Although the words and concepts of "science" and "nature" were not part of the conceptual landscape at the time, the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians made contributions that would later find a place in Greek and medieval science: mathematics, astronomy, and medicine.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rochberg |first1=Francesca |author-link=Francesca Rochberg |editor1-last=Shank |editor1-first=Michael |editor2-last=Numbers |editor2-first=Ronald |editor3-last=Harrison |editor3-first=Peter |title=Wrestling with Nature: From Omens to Science |year=2011 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-31783-0 |page=9 |chapter=Ch.1 Natural Knowledge in Ancient Mesopotamia}}</ref><ref name="Lindberg2007" />{{rp|p=12}}
From the 3rd millennium BCE, the ancient Egyptians developed a non-positional decimal numbering system,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krebs |first=Robert E. |title=Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-313-32433-8 |page=127}}</ref> solved practical problems using geometry,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Erlich |first1=Ḥaggai |author-link=Haggai Erlich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LcsJosc239YC&q=egyptian%20geometry%20Nile&pg=PA80 |title=The Nile: Histories, Cultures, Myths |last2=Gershoni |first2=Israel |year=2000 |publisher=Lynne Rienner |isbn=978-1-55587-672-2 |pages=80–81 |quote=The Nile occupied an important position in Egyptian culture; it influenced the development of mathematics, geography, and the calendar; Egyptian geometry advanced due to the practice of land measurement "because the overflow of the Nile caused the boundary of each person's land to disappear." |access-date=9 January 2020}}</ref> and developed a calendar.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Telling Time in Ancient Egypt |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tell/hd_tell.htm |access-date=27 May 2022 |website=The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |date=February 2017 |archive-date=3 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303133140/https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tell/hd_tell.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> Their healing therapies involved drug treatments and the supernatural, such as prayers, incantations, and rituals.<ref name="Lindberg2007" />{{rp|p=9}} Ancient Nubians pioneered early antibiotics and established a system of geometrics which served as the basis for initial sunclocks. Nubians also exercised a trigonometric methodology comparable to their Egyptian counterparts.<ref>{{Cite journal |author=Armelagos, George |date=2000 |title=Take Two Beers and Call Me in 1,600 Years: Use of Tetracycline by Nubians and Ancient Egyptians |url=https://digitallibrary.amnh.org/items/482bd90a-de71-49b3-9bbc-d8ff0ab974b3 |journal=Natural History |volume=109 |issue=5 |pages=50–3 |s2cid=89542474}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title=Gnomons at Meroë and Early Trigonometry|first=Leo|last=Depuydt|date=1 January 1998|journal=The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology|volume=84|pages=171–180|doi=10.2307/3822211|jstor=3822211}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.archaeology.org/online/news/nubia.html|title=Neolithic Skywatchers|date=27 May 1998|first=Andrew|last=Slayman|website=Archaeology Magazine Archive|access-date=17 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605234044/http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/nubia.html|archive-date=5 June 2011|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vO5FCVIxz2YC&q=nubia&pg=PA744|title=A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy|last=Neugebauer|first=O.|date=2004-09-17|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-540-06995-9|language=en}}</ref>
The ancient Mesopotamians used knowledge about the properties of various natural chemicals for manufacturing pottery, faience, glass, soap, metals, lime plaster, and waterproofing.<ref name="McIntosh2005">{{cite book |last1=McIntosh |first1=Jane R. |author-link=Jane McIntosh |title=Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspectives |year=2005 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, CA |isbn=978-1-57607-966-9 |pages=273–276 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9veK7E2JwkUC&q=science+in+ancient+Mesopotamia |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> They studied animal physiology, anatomy, behaviour, and astrology for divinatory purposes.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Scientific Astronomy in Antiquity |last=Aaboe |first=Asger |author-link=Asger Aaboe |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society |volume=276 |issue=1257 |date=2 May 1974 |pages=21–42 |doi=10.1098/rsta.1974.0007 |bibcode=1974RSPTA.276...21A |jstor=74272 |s2cid=122508567}}</ref> The Mesopotamians had an intense interest in medicine and the earliest medical prescriptions appeared in Sumerian during the Third Dynasty of Ur.<ref name="McIntosh2005" /><ref>{{cite journal |title=Medicine, Surgery, and Public Health in Ancient Mesopotamia |first=R. D. |last=Biggs |journal=Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies |volume=19 |number=1 |year=2005 |pages=7–18}}</ref> They seem to have studied scientific subjects which had practical or religious applications and had little interest in satisfying curiosity.<ref name="McIntosh2005" />
=== Classical antiquity === {{Main|Science in classical antiquity}} [[File:MANNapoli 124545 plato's academy mosaic.jpg|left|thumb|Plato's Academy mosaic, made between 100 BCE and 79 CE, shows many Greek philosophers and scholars.|alt=Framed mosaic of philosophers gathering around and conversing]]
In classical antiquity, there is no real ancient analogue of a modern scientist. Instead, well-educated, usually upper-class, and almost universally male individuals performed various investigations into nature whenever they could afford the time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lehoux |first1=Daryn |editor1-last=Shank |editor1-first=Michael |editor2-last=Numbers |editor2-first=Ronald |editor3-last=Harrison |editor3-first=Peter |title=Wrestling with Nature: From Omens to Science |year=2011 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-31783-0 |page=39 |chapter=2. Natural Knowledge in the Classical World}}</ref> Before the invention or discovery of the concept of ''phusis'' or nature by the pre-Socratic philosophers, the same words tend to be used to describe the natural "way" in which a plant grows,<ref>An account of the pre-Socratic use of the concept of φύσις may be found in {{cite book |last=Naddaf |first=Gerard |year=2006 |title=The Greek Concept of Nature |publisher=SUNY Press |postscript=,}} and in {{cite journal |last1=Ducarme |first1=Frédéric |last2=Couvet |first2=Denis |year=2020 |title=What does 'nature' mean? |journal=Palgrave Communications |volume=6 |issue=14 |article-number=14 |publisher=Springer Nature |doi=10.1057/s41599-020-0390-y |doi-access=free |url=https://hal.science/hal-02554932/file/s41599-020-0390-y.pdf |access-date=16 August 2023 |archive-date=16 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816053756/https://hal.science/hal-02554932/file/s41599-020-0390-y.pdf |url-status=live}} The word φύσις, while first used in connection with a plant in Homer, occurs early in Greek philosophy, and in several senses. Generally, these senses match rather well the current senses in which the English word ''nature'' is used, as confirmed by {{cite book |last=Guthrie |first=W. K. C. |title=Presocratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus |postscript=none}} (volume 2 of his ''History of Greek Philosophy''), Cambridge University Press, 1965.</ref> and the "way" in which, for example, one tribe worships a particular god. For this reason, it is claimed that these men were the first philosophers in the strict sense and the first to clearly distinguish "nature" and "convention".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Strauss |first1=Leo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cpx2j0TumyIC |title=An Introduction to Political Philosophy: Ten Essays by Leo Strauss |last2=Gildin |first2=Hilail |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=978-0-8143-1902-4 |chapter=Progress or Return? The Contemporary Crisis in Western Education |year=1989 |access-date=30 May 2022 |page=209}}</ref>
The early Greek philosophers of the Milesian school, which was founded by Thales of Miletus and later continued by his successors Anaximander and Anaximenes, were the first to attempt to explain natural phenomena without relying on the supernatural.<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Grady |first1=Patricia F. |author-link=Patricia O'Grady |title=Thales of Miletus: The Beginnings of Western Science and Philosophy |year=2016 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-7546-0533-1 |page=245 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZTUlDwAAQBAJ&q=Thales+of+Miletus+first+scientist&pg=PA245 |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> The Pythagoreans developed a complex number philosophy<ref name="Burkert1972">{{cite book |last=Burkert |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Burkert |date=1 June 1972 |title=Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0qqp4Vk1zG0C&q=Pythagoreanism |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-53918-1}}</ref>{{rp|467–468}} and contributed significantly to the development of mathematical science.<ref name="Burkert1972" />{{rp|465}} The theory of atoms was developed by the Greek philosopher Leucippus and his student Democritus.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Pullman |first1=Bernard |title=The Atom in the History of Human Thought |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19-515040-7 |pages=31–33 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IQs5hur-BpgC&q=Leucippus+Democritus+atom&pg=PA56 |bibcode=1998ahht.book.....P |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Cohen |editor1-first=Henri |editor2-last=Lefebvre |editor2-first=Claire |title=Handbook of Categorization in Cognitive Science |year=2017 |publisher=Elsevier |location=Amsterdam |isbn=978-0-08-101107-2 |page=427 |edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zIrCDQAAQBAJ&q=Leucippus+Democritus+atom&pg=PA427 |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> Later, Epicurus would develop a full natural cosmology based on atomism, and would adopt a "canon" (ruler, standard) which established physical criteria or standards of scientific truth.<ref>Lucretius ({{floruit}}1st century BCE) {{lang|la|De rerum natura}}.</ref> The Greek doctor Hippocrates established the tradition of systematic medical science<ref>{{cite book |last=Margotta |first=Roberto |year=1968 |title=The Story of Medicine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vFZrAAAAMAAJ |location=New York |publisher=Golden Press |access-date=18 November 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Touwaide |first1=Alain |title=Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia |year=2005 |editor1-last=Glick |editor1-first=Thomas F. |editor2-last=Livesey |editor2-first=Steven |editor3-last=Wallis |editor3-first=Faith |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-96930-7 |page=224 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=77y2AgAAQBAJ&q=Hippocrates+medical+science&pg=PA224 |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> and is known as "The Father of Medicine".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leff |first1=Samuel |last2=Leff |first2=Vera |year=1956 |title=From Witchcraft to World Health |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HjNrAAAAMAAJ |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |access-date=23 August 2020}}</ref>
A turning point in the history of early philosophical science was Socrates' example of applying philosophy to the study of human matters, including human nature, the nature of political communities, and human knowledge itself. The Socratic method as documented by Plato's dialogues is a dialectic method of hypothesis elimination: better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those that lead to contradictions. The Socratic method searches for general commonly held truths that shape beliefs and scrutinises them for consistency.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170%3Atext%3DApol.%3Apage%3D17 |title=Plato, Apology |page=17 |access-date=1 November 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129145253/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170%3Atext%3DApol.%3Apage%3D17 |archive-date=29 January 2018}}</ref> Socrates criticised the older type of study of physics as too purely speculative and lacking in self-criticism.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170%3Atext%3DApol.%3Apage%3D27 |title=Plato, Apology |page=27 |access-date=1 November 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129145253/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170%3Atext%3DApol.%3Apage%3D27 |archive-date=29 January 2018}}</ref>
In the 4th century BCE, Aristotle created a systematic programme of teleological philosophy.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Aristotle |title=Nicomachean Ethics |edition=H. Rackham |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0054%3Abekker%20page%3D1139b |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317140402/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc= |archive-date=17 March 2012 |access-date=22 September 2010 |at=1139b}}</ref> In the 3rd century BCE, Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos was the first to propose a heliocentric model of the universe, with the Sun at the centre and all the planets orbiting it.<ref name="McClellan2015">{{cite book |last1=McClellan |first1=James E. III |last2=Dorn |first2=Harold |title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction |year=2015 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore |isbn=978-1-4214-1776-9 |pages=99–100 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ah1ECwAAQBAJ&q=Aristarchus+heliocentrism&pg=PA99 |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> Aristarchus's model was widely rejected because it was believed to violate the laws of physics,<ref name="McClellan2015" /> while Ptolemy's ''Almagest'', which contains a geocentric description of the Solar System, was accepted through the early Renaissance instead.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Graßhoff |first=Gerd |title=The History of Ptolemy's Star Catalogue |year=1990 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4612-8788-9 |series=Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences |volume=14 |location=New York |doi=10.1007/978-1-4612-4468-4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hoffmann |first=Susanne M. |title=Hipparchs Himmelsglobus |year=2017 |publisher=Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden |isbn=978-3-658-18682-1 |location=Wiesbaden |language=de |doi=10.1007/978-3-658-18683-8 |bibcode=2017hihi.book.....H}}</ref> The inventor and mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse made major contributions to the beginnings of calculus.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=C. H. Jr. |title=The Historical Development of the Calculus |year=1979 |publisher=Springer |location=New York |isbn=978-0-387-94313-8 |page=75 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ilrlBwAAQBAJ&q=Archimedes+calculus&pg=PA75 |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> Pliny the Elder was a Roman writer and polymath, who wrote the seminal encyclopaedia ''Natural History''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lawson |first1=Russell M. |title=Science in the Ancient World: An Encyclopedia |year=2004 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, CA |isbn=978-1-85109-539-1 |pages=190–191 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1AY1ALzh9V0C&q=Pliny+the+Elder+encyclopedia&pg=PA190 |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Trevor Morgan |title=Pliny the Elder's Natural History: The Empire in the Encyclopedia |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-926288-5 |page=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6NC_T_tG9lQC&q=Pliny+the+Elder+encyclopedia |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Doody |first1=Aude |title=Pliny's Encyclopedia: The Reception of the Natural History |year=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-48453-4 |page=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YoEhAwAAQBAJ&q=Pliny+the+Elder+encyclopedia |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref>
Positional notation for representing numbers likely emerged between the 3rd and 5th centuries CE along Indian trade routes. This numeral system made efficient arithmetic operations more accessible and would eventually become standard for mathematics worldwide.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Conner |first=Clifford D. |title=A People's History of Science: Miners, Midwives, and "Low Mechanicks" |year=2005 |publisher=Nation Books |isbn=1-56025-748-2 |location=New York |pages=72–74}}</ref>
=== Middle Ages === {{Main|History of science#Middle Ages}} [[File:ViennaDioscoridesEndpaperPeacock.jpg|thumb|The first page of Vienna Dioscurides depicts a peacock, made in the 6th century.|alt=Picture of a peacock on very old paper]]
Due to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the 5th century saw an intellectual decline, with knowledge of classical Greek conceptions of the world deteriorating in Western Europe.<ref name="Lindberg2007" />{{rp|p=194}} Latin encyclopaedists of the period such as Isidore of Seville preserved the majority of general ancient knowledge.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grant |first1=Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YyvmEyX6rZgC |title=The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional and Intellectual Contexts |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-521-56762-6 |series=Cambridge Studies in the History of Science |pages=7–17 |access-date=9 November 2018}}</ref> In contrast, because the Byzantine Empire resisted attacks from invaders, they were able to preserve and improve prior learning.<ref name="Lindberg2007" />{{rp|p=159}} John Philoponus, a Byzantine scholar in the 6th century, started to question Aristotle's teaching of physics, introducing the theory of impetus.<ref name="Lindberg2007" />{{rp|pp=307, 311, 363, 402}} His criticism served as an inspiration to medieval scholars and Galileo Galilei, who extensively cited his works ten centuries later.<ref name="Lindberg2007" />{{rp|pp=307–308}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Philoponus |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/philoponus/ |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |first=Christian |last=Wildberg |editor-first=Edward N. |editor-last=Zalta |date=1 May 2018 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=1 May 2018 |archive-date=22 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190822110331/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/philoponus/ |url-status=live}}</ref>
During late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, natural phenomena were mainly examined via the Aristotelian approach. The approach includes Aristotle's four causes: material, formal, moving, and final cause.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Aristotle on Causality |last=Falcon |first=Andrea |editor-last=Zalta |year=2019 |editor-first=Edward |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |edition=Spring 2019 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/aristotle-causality/#FouCau |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-date=9 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009032459/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/aristotle-causality/#FouCau |url-status=live}}</ref> Many Greek classical texts were preserved by the Byzantine Empire and Arabic translations were made by Christians, mainly Nestorians and Miaphysites. Under the Abbasids, these Arabic translations were later improved and developed by Arabic scientists.<ref name="Grant2007a"/>{{rp|pp=62–67}} By the 6th and 7th centuries, the neighbouring Sasanian Empire established the medical Academy of Gondishapur, which was considered by Greek, Syriac, and Persian physicians as the most important medical hub of the ancient world.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge history of Iran |date=1968–1991 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |last=Fisher |first=W. B. |isbn=978-0-521-20093-6}}</ref>
Islamic study of Aristotelianism flourished in the House of Wisdom established in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad, Iraq<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Bayt-al-Hikmah |title=Bayt al-Hikmah |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=3 November 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104043313/https://www.britannica.com/place/Bayt-al-Hikmah |archive-date=4 November 2016}}</ref> and the flourished<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Hossein Nasr |editor-first=Seyyed |title=History of Islamic Philosophy |title-link=History of Islamic Philosophy |editor-last2=Leaman |editor-first2=Oliver |publisher=Routledge |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-415-25934-7 |pages=165–167 |editor-link=Seyyed Hossein Nasr}}</ref> until the Mongol invasions in the 13th century. Ibn al-Haytham, better known as Alhazen, used controlled experiments in his optical study.{{efn|name=doubtPtolemy|1= Ibn al-Haytham's ''Book of Optics'' disputed Claudius Ptolemy's extramission theory of vision: "Hence, the extramission of [visual] rays is superfluous and useless". See A. Mark Smith's translation from the Latin,<ref name="Smith2001">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=A. Mark |title=Alhacen's Theory of Visual Perception: A Critical Edition, with English Translation and Commentary, of the First Three Books of Alhacen's ''De Aspectibus'', the Medieval Latin Version of Ibn al-Haytham's ''Kitāb al-Manāẓir'': Volume Two |title-link=De Aspectibus |publisher=American Philosophical Society |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-87169-914-5 |series=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |volume=91, parts 4 & 5 |location=Philadelphia }}</ref> Book I, [6.54], pp. 372, 408. }}<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=228328 |last1=Toomer |first1=G. J. |title=Reviewed work: Ibn al-Haythams Weg zur Physik, Matthias Schramm |journal=Isis |volume=55 |issue=4 |pages=463–465 |year=1964 |doi=10.1086/349914}} See p. 464: "Schramm sums up [Ibn Al-Haytham's] achievement in the development of scientific method.", p. 465: "Schramm has demonstrated .. beyond any dispute that Ibn al-Haytham is a major figure in the Islamic scientific tradition, particularly in the creation of experimental techniques." p. 465: "only when the influence of Ibn al-Haytham and others on the mainstream of later medieval physical writings has been seriously investigated can Schramm's claim that Ibn al-Haytham was the true founder of modern physics be evaluated."</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=H. Floris |author-link=Floris Cohen |chapter=Greek nature knowledge transplanted: The Islamic world |title=How modern science came into the world. Four civilizations, one 17th-century breakthrough |year=2010 |pages=99–156 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-8964-239-4 |edition=2nd}}</ref> Avicenna's compilation of ''The Canon of Medicine'', a medical encyclopaedia, is considered to be one of the most important publications in medicine and was used until the 18th century.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediahis00seli |url-access=limited |year=2006 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediahis00seli/page/n168 155]–156 |publisher=Springer |bibcode=2008ehst.book.....S |isbn=978-1-4020-4559-2 |editor-last1=Selin |editor-first1=Helaine |editor-link=Helaine Selin}}</ref>
By the 11th century most of Europe had become Christian,<ref name="Lindberg2007" />{{rp|p=204}} and in 1088, the University of Bologna emerged as the first university in Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Russell |first=Josiah C. |year=1959 |title=Gratian, Irnerius, and the Early Schools of Bologna |journal=The Mississippi Quarterly |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=168–188 |jstor=26473232 |quote=Perhaps even as early as 1088 (the date officially set for the founding of the University)}}</ref> As such, demand for Latin translation of ancient and scientific texts grew,<ref name="Lindberg2007" />{{rp|p=204}} a major contributor to the Renaissance of the 12th century. Renaissance scholasticism in western Europe flourished, with experiments done by observing, describing, and classifying subjects in nature.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Albertus-Magnus |title=St. Albertus Magnus |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=27 October 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028045424/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Albertus-Magnus |archive-date=28 October 2017}}</ref> In the 13th century, medical teachers and students at Bologna began opening human bodies, leading to the first anatomy textbook based on human dissection by Mondino de Luzzi.<ref>{{cite book |last=Numbers |first=Ronald |url=http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674057418 |title=Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-674-03327-6 |page=45 |access-date=27 March 2018 |archive-date=20 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120190509/https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674057418 |url-status=live}}</ref>
=== Renaissance === {{Main|Science in the Renaissance}}
{{Further|Printing press#Circulation of information and ideas|Copernican heliocentrism}} thumb|alt=Map of Europe with dots marking cities where printing presses were established by the end of the fifteenth century|The spread of printing between 1440 and 1500. From a single print shop in Mainz, Germany around 1440, the movable type printing-press had spread to no less than around 270 cities in Central, Western and Eastern Europe and had already produced more than 20 million volumes by the end of the 15th century.<ref name="Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean 1976 by Anderson, Benedict 1993, 58f.">Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean (1976). ''The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450–1800''. London: New Left Books. Quoted in: Anderson, Benedict. ''Comunidades Imaginadas. Reflexiones sobre el origen y la difusión del nacionalismo''. Fondo de cultura económica, Mexico, 1993. {{ISBN|978-968-16-3867-2}}. pp. 58f.</ref> Printing made scholarly books more widely accessible, allowing researchers to consult ancient texts freely and to compare their own observations with those of fellow scholars.<ref>"Printing made it possible for Brahe to survey a wide range of publications (there were over a hundred on the comet of 1577, though many were merely astrological prognostications) and demonstrate that the four best observers had produced results compatible with his own. It also ensured that Brahe's new system was quickly known throughout Europe, so that his arguments could be tested against the nova of 1604 and the comets of 1618. Printing created a community of astronomers working on common problems with common methods and reaching agreed solutions." Wootton, David. ''The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution'' (Penguin, 2015). pp.197-198. {{ISBN|0-06-175952-X}}</ref> Printing ended the manuscript culture of the Middle Ages, where facts were few and far between, and replaced it with a printing culture where reliable and documented facts rapidly proliferated and became the secure foundation for scientific knowledge.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wootton |first=David |author-link=David Wootton (historian) |title=The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution |publisher=Penguin |year=2015 |page=282 |isbn=978-0-06-175952-9 |quote=...a manuscript culture, in which experience is unspecific, indirect, and amorphous...a print culture, in which experience is specific, direct, documented and retrievable...In comparison to the world of print, manuscript culture is one of rumour and gossip. The printing press represents an information revolution, and secure facts are its consequence.}}</ref>
In the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus formulated a heliostatic model of the Solar System, with the Sun positioned near the center of the Universe,<ref>"The man who had deposed the earth from its proud position as the centre of the universe and had recognized it to be merely one of the planets, had yet felt compelled to give it quite an exceptional position in his new system. Though he had said 'in the midst of all stand the sun,' he had in his planetary theories assumed the centre of all movements to be the centre of the earth's orbit, where the sun was not." Dreyer, J.L.E. ''A History of Astronomy from Thales to Kepler,'' (Dover Publications, 1953). p.343. {{ISBN|9780486600796}}</ref><ref>"...it was obvious to Copernicus...that the earth cannot move uniformly about a circle with the sun at the center. Thus Copernicus placed the sun not at the center of the earth's orbit, but at some distance away. The center of the solar system, and of the universe, in the system of Copernicus is thus not the sun at all, but rather a 'mean sun,' of the center of the earth's orbit. Hence, it is preferable to call the Copernican system a heliostatic system rather than a heliocentric system." Cohen, I. Bernard. ''The Birth of a New Physics (Revised and Updated)'' (W.W. Norton & Company, 1985). p.44. {{ISBN|0-393-01994-2}}</ref> motionless, with Earth and the other planets orbiting around it in circular motions,<ref>"All movement within it (outside of the immediate vicinity of the Earth) is determined by the fundamental principle that heavenly movement is circular and therefore unchanging. Ptolemy, Copernicus thought, had betrayed this principle not...by adding epicycles to deferents in order to explain why the planets sometimes appear to move backwards in the sky, but by introducing the equant in order to speed them up and slow them down." Wootton, David. ''The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution'' (Penguin, 2015). p.152. {{ISBN|0-06-175952-X}}</ref> modified by epicycles, and at uniform speeds. The Copernican model challenged the dominant geocentric model of Ptolemy, which had placed Earth at the center of the Universe. 16th-century astronomers believed that Copernicus' elimination of the equant was his chief achievement<ref>"My Copernican census eventually helped to establish that the majority of sixteenth-century astronomers thought eliminating the equant was Copernicus' big achievement, because it satisfied the ancient aesthetic principle that eternal celestial motions should be uniform and circular or compounded of uniform and circular parts." Gingerich, Owen. ''The Book Nobody Read'' (Walker & Company, 2004).p.55. {{ISBN|0-8027-1415-3}}</ref> but his model never displaced Ptolemy's, which only fell out of favor 70 years later after Galileo's telescopic observations of 1610.<ref>"It is easy to show that conventional Ptolemaic astronomy was thriving until 1610 [when Galileo observed the phases of Venus with a telescope] and went into crisis immediately afterwards...The evidence is clear: Ptolemaic astronomy was unaffected by Copernicus; it went into crisis briefly with the new star of 1572, but by the end of the sixteenth century it had fully recovered. The telescope, on the other hand, brought about its immediate and irreversible collapse." Wootton, David. ''The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution'' (Penguin, 2015). p.152. {{ISBN|0-06-175952-X}}</ref>
=== Scientific Revolution === {{Main|Scientific Revolution}}
Tycho Brahe's unprecedentedly accurate astronomical observations in the late 16th century and Galileo Galilei’s early 17th-century telescopic observations combined to turn astronomy into the first modern science. Galileo's observations ended a millenium of pre-modern astronomical orthodoxy{{sfnq|Wootton|2015|p=152|q=It is easy to show that conventional Ptolemaic astronomy was thriving until 1610 [when Galileo observed the phases of Venus with a telescope] and went into crisis immediately afterwards...The evidence is clear: Ptolemaic astronomy was unaffected by Copernicus; it went into crisis briefly with the new star of 1572, but by the end of the sixteenth century it had fully recovered. The telescope, on the other hand, brought about its immediate and irreversible collapse.}} while Johannes Kepler used Brahe's data to discover that planets have elliptical, not circular, orbits and develop the laws of planetary motion.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article-pdf/64/9/50/9881314/50_1_online.pdf|title= The great Martian catastrophe and how Kepler fixed it |journal=Physics Today|date= 2011 |volume=64|issue=9|pages=50–54|doi=10.1063/PT.3.1259|access-date=27 July 2023 |last= Gingerich |first= Owen |author-link=Owen Gingerich |bibcode= 2011PhT....64i..50G }}</ref> Because of Kepler, astronomical phenomena came to be seen as being governed by physical laws.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Goldstein|first1=Bernard|last2=Hon|first2=Giora|date=2005|title=Kepler's Move from Orbs to Orbits: Documenting a Revolutionary Scientific Concept|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/246602496|journal=Perspectives on Science|volume=13|pages=74–111|doi=10.1162/1063614053714126 |s2cid=57559843 }}</ref> The "New Science" that ultimately emerged by the end of the 17th century broke sharply with the natural philosophy that had preceded it,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Küskü |first=Elif Aslan |date=2022 |title=Examination of Scientific Revolution Medicine on the Human Body / Bilimsel Devrim Tıbbını İnsan Bedeni Üzerinden İncelemek |url=https://www.academia.edu/87500649 |journal=The Legends: Journal of European History Studies |access-date=28 September 2022 |archive-date=12 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112202215/https://www.academia.edu/87500649 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Hendrix |first=Scott E. |title=Natural Philosophy or Science in Premodern Epistemic Regimes? The Case of the Astrology of Albert the Great and Galileo Galilei |journal=Teorie Vědy / Theory of Science |year=2011 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=111–132 |doi=10.46938/tv.2011.72 |s2cid=258069710 |url=http://teorievedy.flu.cas.cz/index.php/tv/issue/view/10 |access-date=20 February 2012 |archive-date=18 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121118024030/http://teorievedy.flu.cas.cz/index.php/tv/issue/view/10 |url-status=live |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name= "Principe2011">{{cite book | last= Principe | first= Lawrence M. | year = 2011 | chapter = Introduction | title = Scientific Revolution: A Very Short Introduction | pages = 1–3 | location = New York| publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn= 978-0-199-56741-6}}</ref> departed from previous Greek conceptions and traditions,<ref name= "Lindberg1990">{{cite book | last= Lindberg | first= David C. | year = 1990 | chapter = Conceptions of the Scientific Revolution from Baker to Butterfield: A preliminary sketch | title=Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution | editor-first1 = David C. | editor-last1 = Lindberg | editor-first2 = Robert S. | editor-last2 = Westman | pages = 1–26 | edition = First | location = Chicago | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn= 978-0-521-34262-9}}</ref><ref name= "lindberg2007n">{{cite book | last= Lindberg | first= David C. | year = 2007 | chapter = The legacy of ancient and medieval science | title= The Beginnings of Western Science| pages= 357–368| edition = 2nd | location = Chicago | publisher = University of Chicago Press | isbn= 978-0-226-48205-7}}</ref><ref name= "Stanford Encyclopedia">{{Cite book|url= https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/natphil-ren/|title= The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|last= Del Soldato|first= Eva|date= 2016|publisher= Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|editor-last= Zalta|editor-first= Edward N.|edition= Fall 2016|access-date= 1 June 2018|archive-date= 11 December 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191211205744/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/natphil-ren/|url-status= live}}</ref><ref name= Grant2007c>{{cite book | last= Grant | first = Edward | year = 2007 | chapter = Transformation of medieval natural philosophy from the early period modern period to the end of the nineteenth century | title= A History of Natural Philosophy | url= https://archive.org/details/historynaturalph00gran | url-access= limited | pages = [https://archive.org/details/historynaturalph00gran/page/n289 274]–322 | location = New York | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn= 978-052-1-68957-1}}</ref> was more mechanistic in its worldview and more integrated with mathematics,<ref name= "lindberg2007n"/><ref name= "gal2021i">{{cite book | last= Gal | first = Ofer | year = 2021 | chapter = The New Science | title = The Origins of Modern Science | pages = 308–349 | location = New York | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn= 978-1316649701}}</ref><ref name= "bowlermorus2020b">{{cite book | last1 = Bowler | first1 = Peter J. | last2 = Morus | first2 = Iwan Rhys | year = 2020 | chapter = The scientific revolution | title = Making Modern Science | pages = 25–57 | edition = 2nd | location = Chicago | publisher = University of Chicago Press | isbn= 978-0226365763}}</ref> and was obsessed with the acquisition and interpretation of new evidence.<ref> Wootton, David. ''The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution'' (Penguin, 2015). p.136. {{ISBN|0-06-175952-X}}</ref>
=== Age of Enlightenment === {{Main|Science in the Age of Enlightenment}} [[File:Newton's Principia title page.png|thumb|upright|Title page of the 1687 first edition of {{lang|la|Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica}} by Isaac Newton]]
At the start of the Age of Enlightenment, Isaac Newton formed the foundation of classical mechanics by his {{lang|la|Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica}} greatly influencing future physicists.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gribbin |first=John |title=Science: A History 1543–2001 |year=2002 |page=241 |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=978-0-7139-9503-9 |quote=Although it was just one of the many factors in the Enlightenment, the success of Newtonian physics in providing a mathematical description of an ordered world clearly played a big part in the flowering of this movement in the eighteenth century.}}</ref> Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz incorporated terms from Aristotelian physics, now used in a new non-teleological way. This implied a shift in the view of objects: objects were now considered as having no innate goals. Leibniz assumed that different types of things all work according to the same general laws of nature, with no special formal or final causes.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Leibniz/ |title=Gottfried Leibniz – Biography |website=Maths History |access-date=2 March 2021 |archive-date=11 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711221621/http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Leibniz.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
During this time the declared purpose and value of science became producing wealth and inventions that would improve human lives, in the materialistic sense of having more food, clothing, and other things. In Bacon's words, "the real and legitimate goal of sciences {{em|is the endowment of human life with new inventions and riches}}", and he discouraged scientists from pursuing intangible philosophical or spiritual ideas, which he believed contributed little to human happiness beyond "the fume of subtle, sublime or pleasing [speculation]".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PgmbZIybuRoC&pg=PA162 |title=The Social and Economic Roots of the Scientific Revolution: Texts by Boris Hessen and Henryk Grossmann |last1=Freudenthal |first1=Gideon |last2=McLaughlin |first2=Peter |date=20 May 2009 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4020-9604-4 |access-date=25 July 2018}}</ref>
Science during the Enlightenment was dominated by scientific societies and academies,<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last1=Goddard Bergin |editor-first1=Thomas |editor1-link=Thomas G. Bergin |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofre0000unse_d0p5 |title=Encyclopedia of the Renaissance |editor-last2=Speake |editor-first2=Jennifer |editor2-link=Jennifer Speake |year=1987 |publisher=Facts on File |isbn=978-0-8160-1315-9}}</ref> which had largely replaced universities as centres of scientific research and development. Societies and academies were the backbones of the maturation of the scientific profession. Another important development was the popularisation of science among an increasingly literate population.<ref>{{Cite book |last=van Horn Melton |first=James |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/rise-of-the-public-in-enlightenment-europe/BA532085A260114CD430D9A059BD96EF |title=The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-511-81942-1 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511819421 |access-date=27 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |pages=82–83 |archive-date=20 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120143805/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/rise-of-the-public-in-enlightenment-europe/BA532085A260114CD430D9A059BD96EF |url-status=live}}</ref> Enlightenment philosophers turned to a few of their scientific predecessors – Galileo, Kepler, Boyle, and Newton principally – as the guides to every physical and social field of the day.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment (1500–1780) |url=https://www.tamaqua.k12.pa.us/cms/lib07/PA01000119/Centricity/Domain/119/TheScientificRevolution.pdf |access-date=29 January 2024 |archive-date=14 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114191547/https://www.tamaqua.k12.pa.us/cms/lib07/PA01000119/Centricity/Domain/119/TheScientificRevolution.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Scientific Revolution |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Scientific-Revolution |access-date=29 January 2024 |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |archive-date=18 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518105004/https://www.britannica.com/science/Scientific-Revolution |url-status=live}}</ref>
The 18th century saw significant advancements in the practice of medicine<ref>{{cite book |title=Brock Biology of Microorganisms |publisher=Prentice Hall |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-13-144329-7 |editor-last=Madigan |editor-first=M. |editor-last2=Martinko |editor-first2=J. |edition=11th}}</ref> and physics;<ref>{{cite book |last=Guicciardini |first=N. |url=https://archive.org/details/readingprincipia0000guic |title=Reading the Principia: The Debate on Newton's Methods for Natural Philosophy from 1687 to 1736 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-521-64066-4 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}</ref> the development of biological taxonomy by Carl Linnaeus;<ref>{{cite journal |author1-link=Charles Calisher |last1=Calisher |first1=CH |year=2007 |title=Taxonomy: what's in a name? Doesn't a rose by any other name smell as sweet? |journal=Croatian Medical Journal |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=268–270 |pmc=2080517 |pmid=17436393}}</ref> a new understanding of magnetism and electricity;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Darrigol |first1=Olivier |url=https://archive.org/details/electrodynamicsf0000darr |title=Electrodynamics from Ampère to Einstein |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-850594-9 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}</ref> and the maturation of chemistry as a discipline.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Olby |first1=R. C. |last2=Cantor |first2=G. N. |last3=Christie |first3=J. R. R. |last4=Hodge |first4=M. J. S. |year=1990 |title=Companion to the History of Modern Science |location=London |publisher=Routledge |page=265}}</ref> Ideas on human nature, society, and economics evolved during the Enlightenment. Hume and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed ''A Treatise of Human Nature'', which was expressed historically in works by authors including James Burnett, Adam Ferguson, John Millar and William Robertson, all of whom merged a scientific study of how humans behaved in ancient and primitive cultures with a strong awareness of the determining forces of modernity.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Magnusson |first=Magnus |date=10 November 2003 |title=Review of James Buchan, ''Capital of the Mind: how Edinburgh Changed the World'' |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200311100040 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606015918/http://www.newstatesman.com/200311100040 |archive-date=6 June 2011 |access-date=27 April 2014 |work=New Statesman}}</ref> Modern sociology largely originated from this movement.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=588406 |title=Origins of Sociology: The Case of the Scottish Enlightenment |journal=The British Journal of Sociology |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=164–180 |last1=Swingewood |first1=Alan |year=1970 |doi=10.2307/588406}}</ref> In 1776, Adam Smith published ''The Wealth of Nations'', which is often considered the first work on modern economics.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fry |first=Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/adamsmithslegacy0000unse |title=Adam Smith's Legacy: His Place in the Development of Modern Economics |publisher=Routledge |others=Paul Samuelson, Lawrence Klein, Franco Modigliani, James M. Buchanan, Maurice Allais, Theodore Schultz, Richard Stone, James Tobin, Wassily Leontief, Jan Tinbergen |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-415-06164-3 |url-access=registration}}</ref>
=== 19th century === {{Main|19th century in science}} [[File:Darwin Tree 1837.png|thumb|upright|The first diagram of an evolutionary tree made by Charles Darwin in 1837|alt=Sketch of a map with captions]]
During the 19th century, many distinguishing characteristics of contemporary modern science began to take shape. These included the transformation of the life and physical sciences; the frequent use of precision instruments; the emergence of terms such as "biologist", "physicist", and "scientist"; an increased professionalisation of those studying nature; scientists gaining cultural authority over many dimensions of society; the industrialisation of numerous countries; the thriving of popular science writings; and the emergence of science journals.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lightman |first1=Bernard |editor1-last=Shank |editor1-first=Michael |editor2-last=Numbers |editor2-first=Ronald |editor3-last=Harrison |editor3-first=Peter |title=Wrestling with Nature: From Omens to Science |year=2011 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-31783-0 |page=367 |chapter=13. Science and the Public}}</ref> During the late 19th century, psychology emerged as a separate discipline from philosophy when Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory for psychological research in 1879.<ref>{{cite book |last=Leahey |first=Thomas Hardy |title=A History of Psychology: From Antiquity to Modernity |year=2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-138-65242-2 |edition=8th |location=New York |pages=219–253 |chapter=The psychology of consciousness}}</ref>
During the mid-19th century Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace independently proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection in 1858, which explained how different plants and animals originated and evolved. Their theory was set out in detail in Darwin's book ''On the Origin of Species'', published in 1859.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Padian |first=Kevin |title=Darwin's enduring legacy |journal=Nature |volume=451 |issue=7179 |pages=632–634 |year=2008 |doi=10.1038/451632a |pmid=18256649 |bibcode=2008Natur.451..632P |doi-access=free}}</ref> Separately, Gregor Mendel presented his paper, "Experiments on Plant Hybridisation" in 1865,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Henig |first=Robin Marantz |author-link=Robin Marantz Henig |url=https://archive.org/details/monkingardenlost00heni |title=The monk in the garden: the lost and found genius of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics |year=2000 |pages=134–138}}</ref> which outlined the principles of biological inheritance, serving as the basis for modern genetics.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Miko |first=Ilona |title=Gregor Mendel's principles of inheritance form the cornerstone of modern genetics. So just what are they? |journal=Nature Education |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=134 |year=2008 |url=https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/gregor-mendel-and-the-principles-of-inheritance-593/ |access-date=9 May 2021 |archive-date=19 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719224056/http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/gregor-mendel-and-the-principles-of-inheritance-593 |url-status=live}}</ref>
Early in the 19th century John Dalton suggested the modern atomic theory, based on Democritus's original idea of indivisible particles called ''atoms''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rocke |first1=Alan J. |year=2005 |title=In Search of El Dorado: John Dalton and the Origins of the Atomic Theory |journal=Social Research |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=125–158 |doi=10.1353/sor.2005.0003 |jstor=40972005 |s2cid=141350239}}</ref> The laws of conservation of energy, conservation of momentum and conservation of mass suggested a highly stable universe where there could be little loss of resources. However, with the advent of the steam engine and the Industrial Revolution there was an increased understanding that not all forms of energy have the same energy qualities, the ease of conversion to useful work or to another form of energy.<ref name="Reichl1980" /> This realisation led to the development of the laws of thermodynamics, in which the free energy of the universe is seen as constantly declining: the entropy of a closed universe increases over time.{{efn|name= HelmholtzGibbsGuthLinde|1= Whether the universe is closed or open, or the shape of the universe, is an open question. The 2nd law of thermodynamics,<ref name="Reichl1980">{{cite book |last=Reichl |first=Linda |author-link=Linda Reichl |year=1980 |title=A Modern Course in Statistical Physics |url= |location= |publisher=Edward Arnold |isbn=0-7131-2789-9}}</ref>{{rp|9}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Rao |first=Y. V. C. |title=Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics |publisher=Universities Press |isbn=978-81-7371-048-3 |year=1997 |page=158}}</ref> and the 3rd law of thermodynamics<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.aop.2016.07.031 |title=Bounded energy exchange as an alternative to the third law of thermodynamics |year=2016 |last1=Heidrich |first1=M. |journal=Annals of Physics |volume=373 |pages=665–681 |bibcode=2016AnPhy.373..665H}}</ref> imply the heat death of the universe if the universe is a closed system, but not necessarily for an expanding universe.}}
The electromagnetic theory was established in the 19th century by the works of Hans Christian Ørsted, André-Marie Ampère, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Oliver Heaviside, and Heinrich Hertz. The new theory raised questions that could not easily be answered using Newton's framework. The discovery of X-rays inspired the discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel and Marie Curie in 1896,<ref>{{cite book |last=Mould |first=Richard F. |title=A century of X-rays and radioactivity in medicine: with emphasis on photographic records of the early years |year=1995 |publisher=Inst. of Physics Publ. |isbn=978-0-7503-0224-1 |edition=Reprint. with minor corr |location=Bristol |page=12}}</ref> Marie Curie then became the first person to win two Nobel Prizes.<ref name="Estreicher1938">{{cite book |last=Estreicher |first=Tadeusz |title=Polski słownik biograficzny, vol. 4 |title-link=Polski słownik biograficzny |year=1938 |page=113 |language=pl |chapter=Curie, Maria ze Skłodowskich |author-link=Tadeusz Estreicher}}</ref> In the next year came the discovery of the first subatomic particle, the electron.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Thomson |first=J. J. |year=1897 |title=Cathode Rays |journal=Philosophical Magazine |volume=44 |issue=269 |pages=293–316 |doi=10.1080/14786449708621070 |bibcode=1897LEDPM..44..293T }}</ref>
=== 20th century === {{Main|20th century in science}} [[File:Carte trou ozone Antarctique.jpg|alt=Graph showing lower ozone concentration at the South Pole|thumb|A computer graph of the ozone hole made in 1987 using data from a space telescope]]
In the first half of the century the development of antibiotics and artificial fertilisers improved human living standards globally.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goyotte |first=Dolores |year=2017 |title=The Surgical Legacy of World War II. Part II: The age of antibiotics |url=https://www.ast.org/ceonline/articles/402/files/assets/common/downloads/publication.pdf |url-status=live |journal=The Surgical Technologist |volume=109 |pages=257–264 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505180530/https://www.ast.org/ceonline/articles/402/files/assets/common/downloads/publication.pdf |archive-date=5 May 2021 |access-date=8 January 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Erisman |first1=Jan Willem |first2=M. A. |last2=Sutton |first3=J. |last3=Galloway |first4=Z. |last4=Klimont |first5=W. |last5=Winiwarter |date=October 2008 |title=How a century of ammonia synthesis changed the world |url=http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/energy/Resources/Essays/ngeo325.pdf.xpdf |journal=Nature Geoscience |volume=1 |issue=10 |pages=636–639 |bibcode=2008NatGe...1..636E |doi=10.1038/ngeo325 |s2cid=94880859 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100723223052/http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/energy/Resources/Essays/ngeo325.pdf.xpdf |archive-date=23 July 2010 |access-date=22 October 2010}}</ref> Harmful environmental issues such as ozone depletion, ocean acidification, eutrophication, and climate change came to the public's attention and caused the onset of environmental studies.<ref>{{cite journal |editor-last1=Emmett |editor-first1=Rob |editor-last2=Zelko |editor-first2=Frank |url=http://www.environmentandsociety.org/perspectives/2014/2/minding-gap-working-across-disciplines-environmental-studies |title=Minding the Gap: Working Across Disciplines in Environmental Studies |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121054306/https://www.environmentandsociety.org/perspectives/2014/2/minding-gap-working-across-disciplines-environmental-studies |archive-date=21 January 2022 |series=RCC Perspectives no. 2 |year=2014 |doi=10.5282/rcc/6313 |last1=Emmett |first1=Robert |last2=Zelko |first2=Frank |journal=Environment & Society Portal}}</ref>
During this period scientific experimentation became increasingly larger in scale and funding.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Furner |first=Jonathan |date=1 June 2003 |title=Little Book, Big Book: Before and After Little Science, Big Science: A Review Article, Part I |journal=Journal of Librarianship and Information Science |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=115–125 |doi=10.1177/0961000603352006 |s2cid=34844169}}</ref> The extensive technological innovation stimulated by World War I, World War II, and the Cold War led to competitions between global powers, such as the Space Race and nuclear arms race.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kraft |first1=Chris |url=https://archive.org/details/flight00chri |title=Flight: My Life in Mission Control |first2=James |last2=Schefter |publisher=Dutton |year=2001 |isbn=0-525-94571-7 |location=New York |author-link1=Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. |pages=3–5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kahn |first=Herman |author-link=Herman Kahn |year=1962 |title=Thinking about the Unthinkable |publisher=Horizon}}</ref> Substantial international collaborations were also made, despite armed conflicts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shrum |first=Wesley |title=Structures of scientific collaboration |year=2007 |publisher=MIT Press |others=Joel Genuth, Ivan Chompalov |isbn=978-0-262-28358-8 |location=Cambridge, MA}}</ref>
In the late 20th century active recruitment of women and elimination of sex discrimination greatly increased the number of women scientists, but large gender disparities remained in some fields.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rosser |first=Sue V. |title=Breaking into the Lab: Engineering Progress for Women in Science |date=12 March 2012 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-7645-2 |page=7}}</ref> The discovery of the cosmic microwave background in 1964<ref>{{cite journal |last=Penzias |first=A. A. |year=2006 |title=The origin of elements |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1978/penzias-lecture.pdf |journal=Science |publisher=Nobel Foundation |volume=205 |issue=4406 |pages=549–554 |doi=10.1126/science.205.4406.549 |pmid=17729659 |access-date=4 October 2006 |archive-date=17 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110117225210/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1978/penzias-lecture.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> led to a rejection of the steady-state model of the universe in favour of the Big Bang theory of Georges Lemaître.<ref>{{cite book |last=Weinberg |first=S. |url=https://archive.org/details/gravitationcosmo00stev_0/page/495 |title=Gravitation and Cosmology |publisher=John Whitney & Sons |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-471-92567-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/gravitationcosmo00stev_0/page/495 464–495] |url-access=registration}}</ref>
The century saw fundamental changes within science disciplines. Evolution became a unified theory in the early 20th century when the modern synthesis reconciled Darwinian evolution with classical genetics.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Futuyma |first1=Douglas J. |title=Evolution |last2=Kirkpatrick |first2=Mark |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-60535-605-1 |edition=4th |pages=3–26 |chapter=Chapter 1: Evolutionary Biology |publisher=Sinauer}}</ref> Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and the development of quantum mechanics complement classical mechanics to describe physics in extreme length, time and gravity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Arthur I. |title=Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity. Emergence (1905) and early interpretation (1905–1911) |year=1981 |location=Reading |publisher=Addison–Wesley |isbn=978-0-201-04679-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=ter Haar |first=D. |url=https://archive.org/details/oldquantumtheory0000haar |title=The Old Quantum Theory |publisher=Pergamon |year=1967 |isbn=978-0-08-012101-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/oldquantumtheory0000haar/page/206 206] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Widespread use of integrated circuits in the last quarter of the 20th century combined with communications satellites led to a revolution in information technology and the rise of the global internet and mobile computing, including smartphones. The need for mass systematisation of long, intertwined causal chains and large amounts of data led to the rise of the fields of systems theory and computer-assisted scientific modelling.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=von Bertalanffy |first1=Ludwig |year=1972 |title=The History and Status of General Systems Theory |journal=The Academy of Management Journal |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=407–426 |jstor=255139 |bibcode=1972AManJ..15..407V }}</ref>
=== 21st century === {{Main|21st century#Science and technology}} The Human Genome Project was completed in 2003 by identifying and mapping all of the genes of the human genome.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Naidoo |first1=Nasheen |last2=Pawitan |first2=Yudi |last3=Soong |first3=Richie |last4=Cooper |first4=David N. |last5=Ku |first5=Chee-Seng |date=October 2011 |title=Human genetics and genomics a decade after the release of the draft sequence of the human genome |journal=Human Genomics |volume=5 |issue=6 |pages=577–622 |doi=10.1186/1479-7364-5-6-577 |pmc=3525251 |pmid=22155605 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The first induced pluripotent human stem cells were made in 2006, allowing adult cells to be transformed into stem cells and turn into any cell type found in the body.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rashid |first1=S. Tamir |last2=Alexander |first2=Graeme J. M. |date=March 2013 |title=Induced pluripotent stem cells: from Nobel Prizes to clinical applications |journal=Journal of Hepatology |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=625–629 |doi=10.1016/j.jhep.2012.10.026 |issn=1600-0641 |pmid=23131523 |doi-access=free}}</ref> With the affirmation of the Higgs boson discovery in 2013, the last particle predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics was found.<ref>{{cite press release |last=O'Luanaigh |first=C. |date=14 March 2013 |title=New results indicate that new particle is a Higgs boson |publisher=CERN |url=http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2013/03/new-results-indicate-new-particle-higgs-boson |access-date=9 October 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151020000722/http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2013/03/new-results-indicate-new-particle-higgs-boson |archive-date=20 October 2015}}</ref> In 2015, gravitational waves, predicted by general relativity a century before, were first observed.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.3847/2041-8213/aa91c9 |title=Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger |journal=The Astrophysical Journal |volume=848 |issue=2 |page=L12 |year=2017 |last1=Abbott |first1=B. P. |last2=Abbott |first2=R. |last3=Abbott |first3=T. D. |last4=Acernese |first4=F. |last5=Ackley |first5=K. |last6=Adams |first6=C. |last7=Adams |first7=T. |last8=Addesso |first8=P. |last9=Adhikari |first9=R. X.|last10 = Adya|first10 = V. B. |last11=Affeldt |first11=C. |last12=Afrough |first12=M. |last13=Agarwal |first13=B. |last14=Agathos |first14=M. |last15=Agatsuma |first15=K. |last16=Aggarwal |first16=N. |last17=Aguiar |first17=O. D. |last18=Aiello |first18=L. |last19=Ain |first19=A.|last20 = Ajith|first20 = P. |last21=Allen |first21=B. |last22=Allen |first22=G. |last23=Allocca |first23=A. |last24=Altin |first24=P. A. |last25=Amato |first25=A. |last26=Ananyeva |first26=A. |last27=Anderson |first27=S. B. |last28=Anderson |first28=W. G. |last29=Angelova |first29=S. V.|last30 = Antier|first30 = S. |display-authors=29 |bibcode=2017ApJ...848L..12A |arxiv=1710.05833 |s2cid=217162243 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1126/science.aar2149 |title=Merging neutron stars generate gravitational waves and a celestial light show |journal=Science |year=2017 |last1=Cho |first1=Adrian}}</ref> In 2019, the international collaboration Event Horizon Telescope presented the first direct image of a black hole's accretion disc.<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 April 2019 |title=Media Advisory: First Results from the Event Horizon Telescope to be Presented on April 10th |publisher=Event Horizon Telescope |url=https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/media-advisory-first-results-event-horizon-telescope-be-presented-april-10th |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420135254/https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/media-advisory-first-results-event-horizon-telescope-be-presented-april-10th |archive-date=20 April 2019 |access-date=21 September 2021}}</ref><!-- Should be one paragraph until ~2040, as it represents a quarter of the century -->
== Branches == {{Main|Branches of science}} Modern science is commonly divided into three major branches: natural science, social science, and formal science.<ref name="Cohen2021" /> Each of these branches comprises various specialised yet overlapping scientific disciplines that often possess their own nomenclature and expertise.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/scientific_method_relationships_among_scientific_paradigms/ |title=Scientific Method: Relationships Among Scientific Paradigms |date=7 March 2007 |magazine=Seed Magazine |access-date=4 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161101001155/http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/scientific_method_relationships_among_scientific_paradigms/ |archive-date=1 November 2016}}</ref> Both natural and social sciences are empirical sciences,<ref>{{cite book |title=Philosophy of Science: From Problem to Theory |last=Bunge |first=Mario Augusto |year=1998 |publisher=Transaction |isbn=978-0-7658-0413-6 |page=24}}</ref> as their knowledge is based on empirical observations and is capable of being tested for its validity by other researchers working under the same conditions.<ref name="Popper2002">{{cite book |last=Popper |first=Karl R. |year=2002a |chapter=A survey of some fundamental problems |title=The Logic of Scientific Discovery |url=https://archive.org/details/logicscientificd00popp_574 |url-access=limited |orig-date=1959 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/logicscientificd00popp_574/page/n133 3]–26 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-27844-7}}</ref>{{rp|pp=3-26}}
=== Natural === Natural science is the study of the physical world. It can be divided into two main branches: life science and physical science. These two branches may be further divided into more specialised disciplines. For example, physical science can be subdivided into physics, chemistry, astronomy, and earth science. Modern natural science is the successor to the natural philosophy that began in Ancient Greece. Galileo, Descartes, Bacon, and Newton debated the benefits of using approaches that were more mathematical and more experimental in a methodical way. Still, philosophical perspectives, conjectures, and presuppositions, often overlooked, remain necessary in natural science.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gauch |first=Hugh G. Jr. |chapter=Science in perspective |title=Scientific Method in Practice |publisher=Cambridge University Press |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iVkugqNG9dAC&pg=PA71 |pages=21–73 |isbn=978-0-521-01708-4 |year=2003 |access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref> Systematic data collection, including discovery science, succeeded natural history, which emerged in the 16th century by describing and classifying plants, animals, minerals, and other biotic beings.<ref>{{cite book |last=Oglivie |first=Brian W. |year=2008 |chapter=Introduction |title=The Science of Describing: Natural History in Renaissance Europe |pages=1–24 |edition=Paperback |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-62088-6}}</ref> Today, "natural history" suggests observational descriptions aimed at popular audiences.<ref>{{cite dictionary |title=Natural History |url=http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=natural+history |dictionary=Princeton University WordNet |access-date=21 October 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303173506/http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=natural+history |archive-date=3 March 2012}}</ref>
=== Social === [[File:Supply-demand-equilibrium.svg|thumb|class=skin-invert-image|Supply and demand curve in economics, crossing over at the optimal equilibrium|alt=Two curve crossing over at a point, forming a X shape]]
Social science is the study of human behaviour and the functioning of societies.<ref name="Colander2019" /><ref name="Nisbet2020" /> It has many disciplines that include, but are not limited to anthropology, economics, history, human geography, political science, psychology, and sociology.<ref name="Colander2019" /> In the social sciences, there are many competing theoretical perspectives, many of which are extended through competing research programmes such as the functionalists, conflict theorists, and interactionists in sociology.<ref name="Colander2019" /> Due to the limitations of conducting controlled experiments involving large groups of individuals or complex situations, social scientists may adopt other research methods such as the historical method, case studies, and cross-cultural studies. Moreover, if quantitative information is available, social scientists may rely on statistical approaches to better understand social relationships and processes.<ref name="Colander2019" />
=== Formal === Formal science is an area of study that generates knowledge using formal systems.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://my.wlu.edu/the-sciences-at-wandl/formal-sciences |title=Formal Sciences: Washington and Lee University |website=Washington and Lee University |access-date=14 May 2021 |quote=A "formal science" is an area of study that uses formal systems to generate knowledge such as in Mathematics and Computer Science. Formal sciences are important subjects because all of quantitative science depends on them. |archive-date=14 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514125428/https://my.wlu.edu/the-sciences-at-wandl/formal-sciences |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Löwe2002">{{cite journal |last=Löwe |first=Benedikt |author-link=Benedikt Löwe |year=2002 |title=The formal sciences: their scope, their foundations, and their unity |journal=Synthese |volume=133 |issue=1/2 |pages=5–11 |doi=10.1023/A:1020887832028 |issn=0039-7857 |s2cid=9272212}}</ref><ref name="Rucker2019">{{cite book |last=Rucker |first=Rudy |author-link=Rudy Rucker |url=http://www.rudyrucker.com/infinityandthemind/#calibre_link-328 |title=Infinity and the Mind: The Science and Philosophy of the Infinite |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-691-19138-6 |edition=Reprint |pages=157–188 |chapter=Robots and souls |access-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226212447/http://www.rudyrucker.com/infinityandthemind/#calibre_link-328 |archive-date=26 February 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> A formal system is an abstract structure used for inferring theorems from axioms according to a set of rules.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Formal system |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/formal-system |access-date=30 May 2022 |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |archive-date=29 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080429174130/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9034889/formal-system |url-status=live}}</ref> It includes mathematics,<ref>{{cite book |last=Tomalin |first=Marcus |year=2006 |title=Linguistics and the Formal Sciences}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=The Formal Sciences: Their Scope, Their Foundations, and Their Unity |journal=Synthese |volume=133 |pages=5–11 |doi=10.1023/a:1020887832028 |year=2002 |last1=Löwe |first1=Benedikt |issue=1/2 |s2cid=9272212}}</ref> systems theory, and theoretical computer science. The formal sciences share similarities with the other two branches by relying on objective, careful, and systematic study of an area of knowledge. They are, however, different from the empirical sciences as they rely exclusively on deductive reasoning, without the need for empirical evidence, to verify their abstract concepts.<ref name="Fetzer2013" /><ref>{{cite book |first=Thompson |last=Bill |title=The Nature of Statistical Evidence |chapter=2.4 Formal Science and Applied Mathematics |publisher=Springer |series=Lecture Notes in Statistics |volume=189 |year=2007 |page=15}}</ref><ref name="Popper2002" /> The formal sciences are therefore ''a priori'' disciplines and because of this, there is disagreement on whether they constitute a science.<ref name="Kluwer" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bunge |first1=Mario |title=Philosophy of Science: Volume 1, From Problem to Theory |year=1998 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-7658-0413-6 |edition=revised |volume=1 |location=New York |pages=3–50 |chapter=The Scientific Approach}}</ref> Nevertheless, the formal sciences play an important role in the empirical sciences. Calculus, for example, was initially invented to understand motion in physics.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mujumdar |first1=Anshu Gupta |last2=Singh |first2=Tejinder |year=2016 |chapter=Cognitive science and the connection between physics and mathematics |title=Trick or Truth?: The Mysterious Connection Between Physics and Mathematics |editor-first1=Anthony |editor-last1=Aguirre |editor-first2=Brendan |editor-last2=Foster |series=The Frontiers Collection |pages=201–218 |location=Switzerland |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-27494-2}}</ref> Natural and social sciences that rely heavily on mathematical applications include mathematical physics,<ref>{{cite web |title=About the Journal |url=http://jmp.aip.org/jmp/staff.jsp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061003233339/http://jmp.aip.org/jmp/staff.jsp |archive-date=3 October 2006 |access-date=3 October 2006 |website=Journal of Mathematical Physics}}</ref> chemistry,<ref>{{cite book |last=Restrepo |first=G. |chapter=Mathematical chemistry, a new discipline |title=Essays in the philosophy of chemistry |editor-last1=Scerri |editor-first1=E. |editor-last2=Fisher |editor-first2=G. |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |year=2016 |pages=332–351 |isbn=978-0-19-049459-9 |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/essays-in-the-philosophy-of-chemistry-9780190494599?cc=de&lang=en& |archive-date=10 June 2021 |access-date=31 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610130352/https://global.oup.com/academic/product/essays-in-the-philosophy-of-chemistry-9780190494599?cc=de&lang=en& |url-status=live}}</ref> biology,<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is mathematical biology |publisher=Centre for Mathematical Biology, University of Bath |url=http://www.bath.ac.uk/cmb/mathBiology/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923070442/http://www.bath.ac.uk/cmb/mathBiology/ |archive-date=23 September 2018 |access-date=7 June 2018}}</ref> finance,<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Johnson |first=Tim |date=1 September 2009 |title=What is financial mathematics? |url=https://plus.maths.org/content/what-financial-mathematics |access-date=1 March 2021 |magazine=+Plus Magazine |archive-date=8 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408231344/https://plus.maths.org/content/what-financial-mathematics |url-status=live}}</ref> and economics.<ref>{{cite book |last=Varian |first=Hal |author-link=Hal Varian |year=1997 |chapter=What Use Is Economic Theory? |editor-last1=D'Autume |editor-first1=A. |editor-last2=Cartelier |editor-first2=J. |title=Is Economics Becoming a Hard Science? |publisher=Edward Elgar}} [http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~hal/Papers/theory.pdf Pre-publication]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060625062619/http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~hal/Papers/theory.pdf |date=25 June 2006 }}. Retrieved 1 April 2008.</ref>
=== Applied === Applied science is the use of the scientific method and knowledge to attain practical goals and includes a broad range of disciplines such as engineering and medicine.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Abraham |first=Reem Rachel |year=2004 |title=Clinically oriented physiology teaching: strategy for developing critical-thinking skills in undergraduate medical students |journal=Advances in Physiology Education |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=102–104 |doi=10.1152/advan.00001.2004 |pmid=15319191 |s2cid=21610124}}</ref><ref name="Bunge1966" /> Engineering is the use of scientific principles to invent, design and build machines, structures and technologies.<ref>{{cite dictionary |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/engineering |title=Engineering |dictionary=Cambridge Dictionary |publisher=Cambridge University Press |access-date=25 March 2021 |archive-date=19 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190819030859/https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/engineering |url-status=live}}</ref> Science may contribute to the development of new technologies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brooks |first=Harvey |date=1 September 1994 |title=The relationship between science and technology |url=https://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/files/publication/sciencetechnology.pdf |journal=Research Policy |series=Special Issue in Honor of Nathan Rosenberg |volume=23 |issue=5 |pages=477–486 |doi=10.1016/0048-7333(94)01001-3 |issn=0048-7333 |access-date=14 October 2022 |archive-date=30 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221230224402/https://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/files/publication/sciencetechnology.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> Medicine is the practice of caring for patients by maintaining and restoring health through the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of injury or disease.<ref>{{cite book |last=Firth |first=John |title=Oxford textbook of medicine |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-19-874669-0 |chapter=Science in medicine: when, how, and what}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Saunders |first=J. |date=June 2000 |title=The practice of clinical medicine as an art and as a science |journal=Med Humanit |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=18–22 |doi=10.1136/mh.26.1.18 |pmid=12484313 |doi-access=free |s2cid=73306806 |pmc=1071282}}</ref>
=== Basic === The applied sciences are often contrasted with the basic sciences, which are focused on advancing scientific theories and laws that explain and predict events in the natural world.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Davis |first1=Bernard D. |date=March 2000 |title=Limited scope of science |journal=Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews |volume=64 |issue=1 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.1128/MMBR.64.1.1-12.2000 |pmc=98983 |pmid=10704471 |postscript=none}} & "Technology" in {{cite journal |first=Bernard |last=Davis |author-link1=Bernard Davis (biologist) |date=Mar 2000 |title=The scientist's world |journal=Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews |volume=64 |issue=1 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.1128/MMBR.64.1.1-12.2000 |pmc=98983 |pmid=10704471}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=James |last=McCormick |year=2001 |title=Scientific medicine—fact of fiction? The contribution of science to medicine |journal=Occasional Paper (Royal College of General Practitioners) |pages=3–6 |pmc=2560978 |pmid=19790950 |number=80}}</ref>
=== Blue skies === {{Excerpt|Blue skies research|paragraphs=1|only=paragraphs|hat=no}}
=== Computational === Computational science applies computer simulations to science, enabling a better understanding of scientific problems than formal mathematics alone can achieve. The use of machine learning and artificial intelligence is becoming a central feature of computational contributions to science, for example in agent-based computational economics, random forests, topic modelling and various forms of prediction. However, machines alone rarely advance knowledge as they require human guidance and capacity to reason; and they can introduce bias against certain social groups or sometimes underperform against humans.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Breznau |first1=Nate |year=2022 |title=Integrating Computer Prediction Methods in Social Science: A Comment on Hofman et al. (2021) |journal=Social Science Computer Review |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=844–853 |doi=10.1177/08944393211049776 |doi-access=free |s2cid=248334446 |url=https://osf.io/adxb3/download |access-date=16 August 2023 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429040922/https://osf.io/adxb3/download |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hofman |first1=Jake M. |last2=Watts |first2=Duncan J. |author2-link=Duncan J. Watts |last3=Athey |first3=Susan |author3-link=Susan Athey |last4=Garip |first4=Filiz |last5=Griffiths |first5=Thomas L. |author5-link=Tom Griffiths (cognitive scientist) |last6=Kleinberg |first6=Jon |author6-link=Jon Kleinberg |last7=Margetts |first7=Helen |author7-link=Helen Margetts |last8=Mullainathan |first8=Sendhil |author8-link=Sendhil Mullainathan |last9=Salganik |first9=Matthew J. |author9-link=Matthew J. Salganik |last10=Vazire |first10=Simine |author10-link=Simine Vazire |last11=Vespignani |first11=Alessandro |author11-link=Alessandro Vespignani |date=July 2021 |title=Integrating explanation and prediction in computational social science |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03659-0 |url-status=live |journal=Nature |volume=595 |issue=7866 |pages=181–188 |bibcode=2021Natur.595..181H |doi=10.1038/s41586-021-03659-0 |issn=1476-4687 |pmid=34194044 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925074416/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03659-0 |archive-date=25 September 2021 |access-date=25 September 2021 |s2cid=235697917}}</ref>
=== Interdisciplinary === Interdisciplinary science involves the combination of two or more disciplines into one,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Nissani |first=M. |year=1995 |title=Fruits, Salads, and Smoothies: A Working definition of Interdisciplinarity |journal=The Journal of Educational Thought |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=121–128 |doi=10.55016/ojs/jet.v29i2.52385 |jstor=23767672}}</ref> such as bioinformatics, a combination of biology and computer science<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/digitalcodeoflif0000mood |title=Digital Code of Life: How Bioinformatics is Revolutionizing Science, Medicine, and Business |last=Moody |first=G. |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-471-32788-2 |url-access=registration |page=vii |publisher=John Wiley & Sons}}</ref> or cognitive sciences. The concept has existed since the ancient Greek period and it became popular again in the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ausburg |first=Tanya |title=Becoming Interdisciplinary: An Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies |publisher=Kendall/Hunt Publishing |year=2006 |edition=2nd |location=New York}}</ref>
== Research == Scientific research can be labelled as either basic or applied research. Basic research is the search for knowledge and applied research is the search for solutions to practical problems using this knowledge. Most understanding comes from basic research, though sometimes applied research targets specific practical problems. This leads to technological advances that were not previously imaginable.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://richarddawkins.net/articles/91 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119113522/http://richarddawkins.net/articles/91 |archive-date=19 January 2012 |title=To Live at All Is Miracle Enough |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |publisher=RichardDawkins.net |date=10 May 2006 |access-date=5 February 2012}}</ref>
=== Scientific method === [[File:The Scientific Method.svg|thumb|class=skin-invert-image|A diagram variant of scientific method represented as an ongoing process|alt=6 steps of the scientific method in a loop]]
Scientific research involves using the scientific method, which seeks to objectively explain the events of nature in a reproducible way.<ref name="di Francia1976">{{cite book |last=di Francia |first=Giuliano Toraldo |chapter=The method of physics |title=The Investigation of the Physical World |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1976 |pages=1–52 |isbn=978-0-521-29925-1 |quote=The amazing point is that for the first time since the discovery of mathematics, a method has been introduced, the results of which have an intersubjective value!}}</ref> Scientists usually take for granted a set of basic assumptions that are needed to justify the scientific method: there is an objective reality shared by all rational observers; this objective reality is governed by natural laws; these laws were discovered by means of systematic observation and experimentation.<ref name="Heilbron2003" /> Mathematics is essential in the formation of hypotheses, theories, and laws, because it is used extensively in quantitative modelling, observing, and collecting measurements.<ref name=Popper2002 /><!-- {{cite book |last=Popper |first=Karl R. |url=https://archive.org/details/logicscientificd00popp_574 |title=The Logic of Scientific Discovery |publisher=Routledge |year=2002e |isbn=978-0-415-27844-7 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/logicscientificd00popp_574/page/n133 3]–26 |chapter=The problem of the empirical basis |orig-date=1959 |url-access=limited}}</ref -->{{rp|pp=3-26}} Statistics is used to summarise and analyse data, which allows scientists to assess the reliability of experimental results.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Diggle |first1=Peter J. |author-link=Peter Diggle |title=Statistics and Scientific Method: An Introduction for Students and Researchers |last2=Chetwynd |first2=Amanda G. |author2-link=Amanda Chetwynd |year=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-954318-2 |pages=1–2}}</ref>
In the scientific method an explanatory thought experiment or hypothesis is put forward as an explanation using parsimony principles and is expected to seek consilience – fitting with other accepted facts related to an observation or scientific question.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=Edward |title=Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge |publisher=Vintage |location=New York |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-679-76867-8}}</ref> This tentative explanation is used to make falsifiable predictions, which are typically posted before being tested by experimentation. Disproof of a prediction is evidence of progress.<ref name="di Francia1976" />{{Rp|pages=4–5}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Fara |first=Patricia |author-link=Patricia Fara |year=2009 |chapter=Decisions |title=Science: A Four Thousand Year History |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-922689-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/sciencefourthous00fara/page/408 408] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/sciencefourthous00fara/page/306}}</ref> Experimentation is especially important in science to help establish causal relationships to avoid the correlation fallacy, though in some sciences such as astronomy or geology, a predicted observation might be more appropriate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aldrich |first=John |journal=Statistical Science |volume=10 |year=1995 |pages=364–376 |title=Correlations Genuine and Spurious in Pearson and Yule |jstor=2246135 |doi=10.1214/ss/1177009870 |issue=4 |bibcode=1995StaSc..1009870A |doi-access=free}}</ref>
When a hypothesis proves unsatisfactory it is modified or discarded. If the hypothesis survives testing, it may become adopted into the framework of a scientific theory, a validly reasoned, self-consistent model or framework for describing the behaviour of certain natural events. A theory typically describes the behaviour of much broader sets of observations than a hypothesis; commonly, a large number of hypotheses can be logically bound together by a single theory. Thus, a theory is a hypothesis explaining various other hypotheses. In that vein, theories are formulated according to most of the same scientific principles as hypotheses. Scientists may generate a model, an attempt to describe or depict an observation in terms of a logical, physical or mathematical representation, and to generate new hypotheses that can be tested by experimentation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nola |first1=Robert |last2=Irzik |first2=Gürol |year=2005 |title=Philosophy, science, education and culture |volume=28 |series=Science & technology education library |isbn=978-1-4020-3769-6 |publisher=Springer |pages=207–230}}</ref>
While performing experiments to test hypotheses, scientists may have a preference for one outcome over another.<ref>{{cite web |last=van Gelder |first=Tim |year=1999 |url=http://www.philosophy.unimelb.edu.au/tgelder/papers/HeadsIWin.pdf |title="Heads I win, tails you lose": A Foray Into the Psychology of Philosophy |publisher=University of Melbourne |access-date=28 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409054240/http://www.philosophy.unimelb.edu.au/tgelder/papers/HeadsIWin.pdf |archive-date=9 April 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Pease |first=Craig |date=6 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619154617/http://law-and-science.net/Science4BLJ/Scientific_Method/Deliberate.bias/Text.htm |archive-date=19 June 2010 |title=Chapter 23. Deliberate bias: Conflict creates bad science |website=Science for Business, Law and Journalism |publisher=Vermont Law School |url=http://law-and-science.net/Science4BLJ/Scientific_Method/Deliberate.bias/Text.htm}}</ref> Eliminating the bias can be achieved through transparency, careful experimental design, and a thorough peer review process of the experimental results and conclusions.<ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Shatz |year=2004 |title=Peer Review: A Critical Inquiry |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-1434-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Sheldon |last=Krimsky |year=2003 |title=Science in the Private Interest: Has the Lure of Profits Corrupted the Virtue of Biomedical Research |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-1479-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/scienceinprivate0000krim}}</ref> After the results of an experiment are announced or published, it is normal practice for independent researchers to double-check how the research was performed, and to follow up by performing similar experiments to determine how dependable the results might be.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Ruth Ellen |last1=Bulger |year=2002 |last2=Heitman |first2=Elizabeth |last3=Reiser |first3=Stanley Joel |title=The Ethical Dimensions of the Biological and Health Sciences |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0-521-00886-0 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> Taken in its entirety, the scientific method allows for highly creative problem solving while minimising the effects of subjective and confirmation bias.<ref>{{cite web |last=Backer |first=Patricia Ryaby |date=29 October 2004 |url=http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/pabacker/scientific_method.htm |title=What is the scientific method? |publisher=San Jose State University |access-date=28 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080408082917/http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/pabacker/scientific_method.htm |archive-date=8 April 2008}}</ref> Intersubjective verifiability, the ability to reach a consensus and reproduce results, is fundamental to the creation of all scientific knowledge.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ziman |first=John |title=Reliable knowledge: An exploration of the grounds for belief in science |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1978c |isbn=978-0-521-22087-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/reliableknowledg00john/page/42 42–76] |chapter=Common observation |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/reliableknowledg00john/page/42}}</ref>
=== Literature === {{Main|Scientific literature|Lists of important publications in science}} [[File:Nature cover, November 4, 1869.jpg|thumb|Cover of the first issue of ''Nature'', 4 November 1869|alt=Decorated "NATURE" as title, with scientific text below]]
Scientific research is published in a range of literature.<ref>{{cite journal |author-link=John Ziman |last=Ziman |first=J. M. |journal=Science |title=The proliferation of scientific literature: a natural process |year=1980 |volume=208 |issue=4442 |pages=369–371 |doi=10.1126/science.7367863 |pmid=7367863 |bibcode=1980Sci...208..369Z}}</ref> Scientific journals communicate and document the results of research carried out in universities and various other research institutions, serving as an archival record of science. The first scientific journals, {{lang|fr|Journal des sçavans}} followed by ''Philosophical Transactions'', began publication in 1665. Since that time the total number of active periodicals has steadily increased. In 1981, one estimate for the number of scientific and technical journals in publication was 11,500.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Krishna |last1=Subramanyam |last2=Subramanyam |first2=Bhadriraju |year=1981 |title=Scientific and Technical Information Resources |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-0-8247-8297-9}}</ref>
Most scientific journals cover a single scientific field and publish the research within that field; the research is normally expressed in the form of a scientific article. Science has become so pervasive in modern societies that it is considered necessary to communicate the achievements, news, and ambitions of scientists to a wider population.<ref name="Bush1945">{{cite web |last=Bush |first=Vannevar |date=July 1945 |title=Science the Endless Frontier |url=https://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/nsf50/vbush1945.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161107221306/https://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/nsf50/vbush1945.htm |archive-date=7 November 2016 |access-date=4 November 2016 |publisher=National Science Foundation}}</ref>
== Philosophy == {{anchor|ConjectureAndRefutation}} [[File:Epicycle and deferent.svg|thumb|class=skin-invert-image|For Kuhn, the addition of epicycles in Ptolemaic astronomy was "normal science" within a paradigm, whereas the Copernican Revolution was a paradigm shift.|alt=Depiction of epicycles, where a planet orbit is going around in a bigger orbit]]
There are different schools of thought in the philosophy of science. The most popular position is empiricism, which holds that knowledge is created by a process involving observation; scientific theories generalise observations.<ref name=pGS2003 />{{rp|pp=39–56}} Empiricism generally encompasses inductivism, a position that explains how general theories can be made from the finite amount of empirical evidence available. Many versions of empiricism exist, with the predominant ones being Bayesianism and the hypothetico-deductive method.<ref name=pGS2003 />{{rp|pp=219–232}}
Empiricism has stood in contrast to rationalism, the position originally associated with Descartes, which holds that knowledge is created by the human intellect, not by observation.<ref name=pGS2003 >{{cite book |last=Godfrey-Smith |first=Peter |url=https://archive.org/details/theoryrealityint00godf |title=Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science |publisher=University of Chicago |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-226-30062-7 }}</ref>{{rp|pp=19-38}} <!--19–38 |chapter=Logic plus empiricism |url-access=limited}}-->Critical rationalism is a contrasting 20th-century approach to science, first defined by Austrian-British philosopher Karl Popper. Popper rejected the way that empiricism describes the connection between theory and observation. He claimed that theories are not generated by observation, but that observation is made in the light of theories, and that the only way theory A can be affected by observation is ''after'' theory A were to conflict with observation, but theory B were to survive the observation.<ref name=pGS2003/>{{rp|pp=57–74}} Popper proposed replacing verifiability with falsifiability as the landmark of scientific theories, replacing induction with falsification as the empirical method.<ref name=pGS2003 />{{rp|pp=102–121}} Popper further claimed that there is actually only one universal method, not specific to science: the negative method of criticism, trial and error,<ref name=pGS2003 />{{rp|pp=102–121}} <!--chapter=Lakatos, Laudan, Feyerabend, and frameworks |url-access=limited}}</ref --> covering all products of the human mind, including science, mathematics, philosophy, and art.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Popper |first=Karl |title=Objective Knowledge |year=1972}}</ref>
Another approach, instrumentalism, emphasises the utility of theories as instruments for explaining and predicting phenomena. It views scientific theories as black boxes, with only their input (initial conditions) and output (predictions) being relevant. Consequences, theoretical entities, and logical structure are claimed to be things that should be ignored.<ref>{{cite book |last=Newton-Smith |first=W. H. |url=https://archive.org/details/rationalityofsci0000newt |title=The Rationality of Science |publisher=Routledge |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-7100-0913-5 |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/rationalityofsci0000newt/page/30 30] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Close to instrumentalism is constructive empiricism, according to which the main criterion for the success of a scientific theory is whether what it says about observable entities is true.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Votsis |first=I. |year=2004 |title=The Epistemological Status of Scientific Theories: An Investigation of the Structural Realist Account |publisher=University of London, London School of Economics |degree=PhD |page=39}}</ref>
Thomas Kuhn argued that the process of observation and evaluation takes place within a paradigm, a logically consistent "portrait" of the world that is consistent with observations made from its framing. He characterised ''normal science'' as the process of observation and "puzzle solving", which takes place within a paradigm, whereas ''revolutionary science'' occurs when one paradigm overtakes another in a paradigm shift.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Bird |first=Alexander |year=2013 |editor1-last=Zalta |editor1-first=Edward N. |title=Thomas Kuhn |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/thomas-kuhn/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200715191833/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/thomas-kuhn/ |archive-date=15 July 2020 |access-date=26 October 2015 |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy}}</ref> Each paradigm has its own distinct questions, aims, and interpretations. The choice between paradigms involves setting two or more "portraits" against the world and deciding which likeness is most promising. A paradigm shift occurs when a significant number of observational anomalies arise in the old paradigm and a new paradigm makes sense of them. 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. For Kuhn, acceptance or rejection of a paradigm is a social process as much as a logical process. Kuhn's position, however, is not one of relativism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kuhn |first=Thomas S. |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/KUHTSO-2 |title=The Structure of Scientific Revolutions |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1970 |isbn=978-0-226-45804-5 |edition=2nd |page=206 |access-date=30 May 2022 |archive-date=19 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019102817/https://philpapers.org/rec/KUHTSO-2 |url-status=live}}</ref>
Another approach often cited in debates of scientific scepticism against controversial movements like "creation science" is methodological naturalism. Naturalists maintain that a difference should be made between natural and supernatural, and science should be restricted to natural explanations.<ref name=pGS2003 />{{rp|pp=149–162}}<!--ref >{{cite book |last=Godfrey-Smith |first=Peter |url=https://archive.org/details/theoryrealityint00godf |title=Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science |publisher=University of Chicago |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-226-30062-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/theoryrealityint00godf/page/n163 149]–162 |chapter=Naturalistic philosophy in theory and practice |url-access=limited}}</ref--> Methodological naturalism maintains that science requires strict adherence to empirical study and independent verification.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Brugger |first=E. Christian |year=2004 |title=Casebeer, William D. Natural Ethical Facts: Evolution, Connectionism, and Moral Cognition |journal=The Review of Metaphysics |volume=58 |issue=2}}</ref>
One question for philosophy of science is how scientific evidence and theories can lead to decisions. As the is-ought problem highlights, facts alone cannot tell us what we should do. This connects to the key concept of ''value-ladenness'': how choices made on the basis of scientific findings depend on values.<ref>{{Citation |last=Ward |first=Zina B. |title=What Does it Mean to say That Science is Value-Laden? |date=2026-03-10 |work=The Routledge Handbook of Values and Science |pages=74–83 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781003469100/chapters/10.4324/9781003469100-8 |access-date=2026-03-23 |edition= |place=New York |publisher=Routledge |language=en |doi=10.4324/9781003469100-8 |isbn=978-1-003-46910-0}}</ref>
== Community == The scientific community is a network of interacting scientists who conduct scientific research. The community consists of smaller groups working in scientific fields. By having peer review, through discussion and debate within journals and conferences, scientists maintain the quality of research methodology and objectivity when interpreting results.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kornfeld |first1=W. |last2=Hewitt |first2=C. E. |year=1981 |title=The Scientific Community Metaphor |url=http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/5693/AIM-641.pdf?sequence=2 |journal=IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=24–33 |doi=10.1109/TSMC.1981.4308575 |bibcode=1981ITSMC..11...24K |hdl-access=free |hdl=1721.1/5693 |s2cid=1322857 |access-date=26 May 2022 |archive-date=8 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408100757/http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/5693/AIM-641.pdf?sequence=2 |url-status=live}}</ref>
=== Scientists === [[File:Marie Curie c. 1920s.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Marie Curie was the first person to be awarded two Nobel Prizes: Physics in 1903 and Chemistry in 1911.<ref name="Estreicher1938" />|alt=Portrait of a middle-aged woman]]
Scientists are individuals who conduct scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of interest.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://eowilsonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/the-big-read-eusocial-climbers.pdf |title=Eusocial climbers |publisher=E. O. Wilson Foundation |access-date=3 September 2018 |quote=But he's not a scientist, he's never done scientific research. My definition of a scientist is that you can complete the following sentence: 'he or she has shown that...'," Wilson says. |archive-date=27 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427085753/https://eowilsonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/the-big-read-eusocial-climbers.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://sciencecouncil.org/about-science/our-definition-of-a-scientist/ |title=Our definition of a scientist |publisher=Science Council |access-date=7 September 2018 |quote=A scientist is someone who systematically gathers and uses research and evidence, making a hypothesis and testing it, to gain and share understanding and knowledge. |archive-date=23 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190823135636/https://sciencecouncil.org/about-science/our-definition-of-a-scientist/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Scientists may exhibit a strong curiosity about reality and a desire to apply scientific knowledge for the benefit of public health, nations, the environment, or industries; other motivations include recognition by peers and prestige.<ref name=leeEtal2007/> In modern times, many scientists study<!--and specialize in?---> within specific areas of science in academic institutions, often obtaining advanced degrees in the process.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cyranoski |first1=David |last2=Gilbert |first2=Natasha |last3=Ledford |first3=Heidi |last4=Nayar |first4=Anjali |author4-link=Anjali Nayar |last5=Yahia |first5=Mohammed |year=2011 |title=Education: The PhD factory |journal=Nature |volume=472 |issue=7343 |pages=276–279 |doi=10.1038/472276a |pmid=21512548 |bibcode=2011Natur.472..276C |doi-access=free}}</ref> Many scientists pursue careers in various fields such as academia, industry, government, and nonprofit organisations.<ref name=kwok2017>{{cite journal |last1=Kwok |first1=Roberta |title=Flexible working: Science in the gig economy |journal=Nature |volume=550 |pages=419–421 |doi=10.1038/nj7677-549a |year=2017 |issue=7677 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=woolston2024 >{{cite journal |year=2024 |title=How researchers in remote regions handle the isolation |journal=Nature |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01523-5 |last1=Woolston |first1=Chris |volume=629 |issue=8014 |pages=1193–1195 |doi=10.1038/d41586-024-01523-5 |pmid=38789626 |bibcode=2024Natur.629.1193W }}</ref><ref name=leeEtal2007>{{cite journal |last1=Lee |first1=Adrian |last2=Dennis |first2=Carina |last3=Campbell |first3=Phillip |year=2007 |title=Nature's guide for mentors |journal=Nature |volume=447 |issue=7677 |pages=791–797 |doi=10.1038/447791a |doi-access=free |pmid=17568738 |bibcode=2007Natur.447..791L }}</ref>
Science has historically been a male-dominated field, with notable exceptions. Women have faced considerable discrimination in science, much as they have in other areas of male-dominated societies. For example, women were frequently passed over for job opportunities and denied credit for their work.<ref>{{cite book |last=Whaley |first=Leigh Ann |title=Women's History as Scientists |location=Santa Barbara, CA |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2003}}</ref> The achievements of women in science have been attributed to the defiance of their traditional role as labourers within the domestic sphere.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spanier |first=Bonnie |title=Im/partial Science: Gender Identity in Molecular Biology |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-253-20968-9 |chapter=From Molecules to Brains, Normal Science Supports Sexist Beliefs about Difference}}</ref>
=== Learned societies === [[File:200 y Anniversary of Berlin Academy 1900.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Scientists at the 200th anniversary of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, 1900|left]]
Learned societies for the communication and promotion of scientific thought and experimentation have existed since the Renaissance.<ref>{{cite web |last=Parrott |first=Jim |date=9 August 2007 |url=http://www.scholarly-societies.org/1599andearlier.html |title=Chronicle for Societies Founded from 1323 to 1599 |publisher=Scholarly Societies Project |access-date=11 September 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106185404/http://www.scholarly-societies.org/1599andearlier.html |archive-date=6 January 2014}}</ref> Many scientists belong to a learned society that promotes their respective scientific discipline, profession, or group of related disciplines.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.esac.ca/about/what-is-a-learned-society/ |title=The Environmental Studies Association of Canada – What is a Learned Society? |access-date=10 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529163615/http://www.esac.ca/about/what-is-a-learned-society/ |archive-date=29 May 2013}}</ref> Membership may either be open to all, require possession of scientific credentials, or conferred by election.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.britishcouncil.org/science-uk-organisations-learned-societies.htm |title=Learned societies & academies |access-date=10 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140603140851/http://www.britishcouncil.org/science-uk-organisations-learned-societies.htm |archive-date=3 June 2014}}</ref> Most scientific societies are nonprofit organisations,<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 June 2019 |title=Learned Societies, the key to realising an open access future? |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2019/06/24/learned-societies-the-key-to-realising-an-open-access-future/ |access-date=22 January 2023 |website=Impact of Social Sciences |publisher=London School of Economics |archive-date=5 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205140831/https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2019/06/24/learned-societies-the-key-to-realising-an-open-access-future/ |url-status=live}}</ref> and many are professional associations. Their activities typically include holding regular conferences for the presentation and discussion of new research results and publishing or sponsoring academic journals in their discipline. Some societies act as professional bodies, regulating the activities of their members in the public interest, or the collective interest of the membership.
The professionalisation of science, begun in the 19th century, was partly enabled by the creation of national distinguished academies of sciences such as the Italian {{lang|it|Accademia dei Lincei}} in 1603,<ref>{{cite web |year=2006 |url=http://positivamente.lincei.it/ |title=Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei |language=it |access-date=11 September 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100228005402/http://positivamente.lincei.it/ |archive-date=28 February 2010}}</ref> the British Royal Society in 1660,<ref>{{cite web |date=7 July 2004 |title=Prince of Wales opens Royal Society's refurbished building |url=http://royalsociety.org/News.aspx?id=973&terms=prince+of+wales |access-date=7 December 2009 |publisher=The Royal Society |archive-date=9 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150409010143/https://royalsociety.org/News.aspx?id=973&terms=prince+of+wales |url-status=live}}</ref> the French Academy of Sciences in 1666,<ref>{{cite web |first=G. G. |last=Meynell |url=http://www.haven.u-net.com/6text_7B2.htm#Appendix%202 |title=The French Academy of Sciences, 1666–91: A reassessment of the French Académie royale des sciences under Colbert (1666–83) and Louvois (1683–91) |access-date=13 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118174108/http://www.haven.u-net.com/6text_7B2.htm#Appendix%202 |archive-date=18 January 2012}}</ref> the American National Academy of Sciences in 1863,<ref>{{cite web |title=Founding of the National Academy of Sciences |url=http://www7.nationalacademies.org/archives/nasfounding.html |access-date=12 March 2012 |publisher=.nationalacademies.org |archive-date=3 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130203154802/http://www7.nationalacademies.org/archives/nasfounding.html |url-status=live}}</ref> the German Kaiser Wilhelm Society in 1911,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The founding of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (1911) |url=https://www.mpg.de/946619/5_event2-1911 |access-date=30 May 2022 |publisher=Max-Planck-Gesellschaft |archive-date=2 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302052520/https://www.mpg.de/946619/5_event2-1911 |url-status=live}}</ref> and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1949.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Introduction |url=https://english.cas.cn/about_us/introduction/201501/t20150114_135284.shtml |access-date=31 May 2022 |website=Chinese Academy of Sciences |archive-date=31 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331215338/https://english.cas.cn/about_us/introduction/201501/t20150114_135284.shtml |url-status=live}}</ref> International scientific organisations, such as the International Science Council, are devoted to international cooperation for science advancement.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 July 2018 |title=Two main Science Councils merge to address complex global challenges |url=https://en.unesco.org/news/two-main-science-councils-merge-address-complex-global-challenges |access-date=21 October 2018 |publisher=UNESCO |archive-date=12 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712044005/https://en.unesco.org/news/two-main-science-councils-merge-address-complex-global-challenges |url-status=live}}</ref>
=== Awards === Science awards are usually given to individuals or organisations that have made significant contributions to a discipline. They are often given by prestigious institutions; thus, it is considered a great honour for a scientist receiving them. Since the early Renaissance, scientists have often been awarded medals, money, and titles. The Nobel Prize, a widely regarded prestigious award, is awarded annually to those who have achieved scientific advances in the fields of medicine, physics, and chemistry.<ref>{{cite news |last=Stockton |first=Nick |date=7 October 2014 |title=How did the Nobel Prize become the biggest award on Earth? |newspaper=Wired |url=https://www.wired.com/2014/10/whats-nobel-prize-become-biggest-award-planet |url-status=live |access-date=3 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619044702/https://www.wired.com/2014/10/whats-nobel-prize-become-biggest-award-planet/ |archive-date=19 June 2019}}</ref>
== Society == {{Redirect-distinguish|Science and society|Science & Society|Sociology of scientific knowledge}}
=== Funding and policies === [[File:NASA-Budget-Federal.svg|thumb|class=skin-invert-image|upright=1.4|Budget of NASA as percentage of United States federal budget, peaking at 4.4% in 1966 and slowly declining since|alt=see caption]]
Funding of science is often through a competitive process in which potential research projects are evaluated and only the most promising receive funding. Such processes, which are run by government, corporations, or foundations, allocate scarce funds. Total research funding in most developed countries is between 1.5% and 3% of GDP.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/49/45/24236156.pdf |title=Main Science and Technology Indicators – 2008-1 |publisher=OECD |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100215172528/http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/49/45/24236156.pdf |archive-date=15 February 2010}}</ref> In the OECD, around two-thirds of research and development in scientific and technical fields is carried out by industry, and 20% and 10%, respectively, by universities and government. The government funding proportion in certain fields is higher, and it dominates research in social science and the humanities. In less developed nations, the government provides the bulk of the funds for their basic scientific research.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/science-and-technology/oecd-science-technology-and-industry-scoreboard-2015_sti_scoreboard-2015-en |title=OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2015: Innovation for growth and society |publisher=OECD |year=2015 |isbn=978-92-64-23978-4 |page=156 |doi=10.1787/sti_scoreboard-2015-en |via=oecd-ilibrary.org |access-date=28 May 2022 |archive-date=25 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525063455/https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/science-and-technology/oecd-science-technology-and-industry-scoreboard-2015_sti_scoreboard-2015-en |url-status=live}}</ref>
Many governments have dedicated agencies to support scientific research, such as the National Science Foundation in the United States,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kevles |first=Daniel |year=1977 |title=The National Science Foundation and the Debate over Postwar Research Policy, 1942–1945 |journal=Isis |volume=68 |issue=241 |pages=4–26 |doi=10.1086/351711 |pmid=320157 |s2cid=32956693}}</ref> the National Scientific and Technical Research Council in Argentina,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Argentina, National Scientific and Technological Research Council (CONICET) |url=https://council.science/member/argentina-national-scientific-and-technological-research-council-conicet/ |access-date=31 May 2022 |website=International Science Council |archive-date=16 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516220311/https://council.science/member/argentina-national-scientific-and-technological-research-council-conicet/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Innis |first=Michelle |date=17 May 2016 |title=Australia to Lay Off Leading Scientist on Sea Levels |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/world/australia/australia-to-lay-off-leading-scientist-on-sea-levels.html |url-status=live |url-access=limited |access-date=31 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507080237/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/world/australia/australia-to-lay-off-leading-scientist-on-sea-levels.html |archive-date=7 May 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> National Centre for Scientific Research in France,<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 October 2021 |title=Le CNRS recherche 10.000 passionnés du blob |url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/le-cnrs-recherche-10-000-passionnes-du-blob-20211020 |access-date=31 May 2022 |website=Le Figaro |language=fr |archive-date=27 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220427225305/https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/le-cnrs-recherche-10-000-passionnes-du-blob-20211020 |url-status=live}}</ref> the Max Planck Society in Germany,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bredow |first=Rafaela von |date=18 December 2021 |title=How a Prestigious Scientific Organization Came Under Suspicion of Treating Women Unequally |work=Der Spiegel |url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/how-a-prestigious-scientific-organization-came-under-suspicion-of-treating-women-unequally-a-96da63b5-19af-4fde-b044-445f9cfd6159 |access-date=31 May 2022 |issn=2195-1349 |archive-date=29 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220529004707/https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/how-a-prestigious-scientific-organization-came-under-suspicion-of-treating-women-unequally-a-96da63b5-19af-4fde-b044-445f9cfd6159 |url-status=live}}</ref> and National Research Council in Spain.<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 May 2022 |title=En espera de una "revolucionaria" noticia sobre Sagitario A*, el agujero negro supermasivo en el corazón de nuestra galaxia |url=https://www.elmundo.es/ciencia-y-salud/ciencia/2022/05/12/627cca26fdddff17068b4590.html |access-date=31 May 2022 |website=ELMUNDO |language=es |archive-date=13 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513185034/https://www.elmundo.es/ciencia-y-salud/ciencia/2022/05/12/627cca26fdddff17068b4590.html |url-status=live}}</ref> In commercial research and development, all but the most research-orientated corporations focus more heavily on near-term commercialisation possibilities than research driven by curiosity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fletcher |first1=Anthony C. |last2=Bourne |first2=Philip E. |date=27 September 2012 |title=Ten Simple Rules To Commercialize Scientific Research |journal=PLOS Computational Biology |volume=8 |issue=9 |article-number=e1002712 |doi=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002712 |issn=1553-734X |pmc=3459878 |pmid=23028299 |bibcode=2012PLSCB...8E2712F |doi-access=free}}</ref>
Science policy is concerned with policies that affect the conduct of the scientific enterprise, including research funding, often in pursuance of other national policy goals such as technological innovation to promote commercial product development, weapons development, health care, and environmental monitoring. Science policy sometimes refers to the act of applying scientific knowledge and consensus to the development of public policies. In accordance with public policy being concerned about the well-being of its citizens, science policy's goal is to consider how science and technology can best serve the public.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marburger |first=John Harmen III |title=Science policy up close |date=10 February 2015 |others=Crease, Robert P. |isbn=978-0-674-41709-0 |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press}}</ref> Public policy can directly affect the funding of capital equipment and intellectual infrastructure for industrial research by providing tax incentives to those organisations that fund research.<ref name="Bush1945" />
=== Education and awareness === {{Main|2 = Public awareness of science|3 = Science journalism}} [[File:Dinosaur exhibit - Houston Museum of Natural Science - DSC01881.JPG|thumb|upright=1.13|Dinosaur exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science]]
Science education for the general public is embedded in the school curriculum, and is supplemented by online pedagogical content (for example, YouTube and Khan Academy), museums, and science magazines and blogs. Major organisations of scientists such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) consider the sciences to be a part of the liberal arts traditions of learning, along with philosophy and history.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gauch |first1=Hugh G. |title=Scientific Method in Brief |year=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-1-107-66672-6 |pages=7–10}}</ref> Scientific literacy is chiefly concerned with an understanding of the scientific method, units and methods of measurement, empiricism, a basic understanding of statistics (correlations, qualitative versus quantitative observations, aggregate statistics), and a basic understanding of core scientific fields such as physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, and computation. As a student advances into higher stages of formal education, the curriculum becomes more in depth. Traditional subjects usually included in the curriculum are natural and formal sciences, although recent movements include social and applied science as well.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Benneworth |first1=Paul |last2=Jongbloed |first2=Ben W. |date=31 July 2009 |title=Who matters to universities? A stakeholder perspective on humanities, arts and social sciences valorisation |journal=Higher Education |volume=59 |issue=5 |pages=567–588 |doi=10.1007/s10734-009-9265-2 |issn=0018-1560 |doi-access=free |url=https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/files/47901538/Benneworth2010Who.pdf |access-date=16 August 2023 |archive-date=24 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024214150/https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/files/47901538/Benneworth2010Who.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>
The mass media face pressures that can prevent them from accurately depicting competing scientific claims in terms of their credibility within the scientific community as a whole. Determining how much weight to give different sides in a scientific debate may require considerable expertise regarding the matter.<ref>{{cite web |last=Dickson |first=David |date=11 October 2004 |title=Science journalism must keep a critical edge |url=http://www.scidev.net/en/editorials/science-journalism-must-keep-a-critical-edge.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100621053624/http://www.scidev.net/en/editorials/science-journalism-must-keep-a-critical-edge.html |archive-date=21 June 2010 |publisher=Science and Development Network}}</ref> Few journalists have real scientific knowledge, and even beat reporters who are knowledgeable about certain scientific issues may be ignorant about other scientific issues that they are suddenly asked to cover.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Mooney |first=Chris |date=Nov–Dec 2004 |title=Blinded By Science, How 'Balanced' Coverage Lets the Scientific Fringe Hijack Reality |url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2010/01/15/blinded-by-science-how-balanced-coverage-lets-the-scientific-fringe-hijack-reality/ |url-status=live |magazine=Columbia Journalism Review |volume=43 |issue=4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100117181240/http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2010/01/15/blinded-by-science-how-balanced-coverage-lets-the-scientific-fringe-hijack-reality/ |archive-date=17 January 2010 |access-date=20 February 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=McIlwaine |first1=S. |last2=Nguyen |first2=D. A. |year=2005 |title=Are Journalism Students Equipped to Write About Science? |url=http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:8064 |url-status=live |journal=Australian Studies in Journalism |volume=14 |pages=41–60 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080801163322/http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:8064 |archive-date=1 August 2008 |access-date=20 February 2008}}</ref>
Science magazines such as ''New Scientist'', ''Science & Vie'', and ''Scientific American'' cater to the needs of a much wider readership and provide a non-technical summary of popular areas of research, including notable discoveries and advances in certain fields of research.<ref>{{cite journal |author-last=Webb |author-first=Sarah |title=Popular science: Get the word out |journal=Nature |volume=504 |issue=7478 |pages=177–179 |date=December 2013 |pmid=24312943 |doi=10.1038/nj7478-177a |doi-access=free}}</ref> The science fiction genre, primarily speculative fiction, can transmit the ideas and methods of science to the general public.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wilde |first=Fran |author-link=Fran Wilde (author) |date=21 January 2016 |title=How Do You Like Your Science Fiction? Ten Authors Weigh In On 'Hard' vs. 'Soft' SF |url=https://www.tor.com/2016/01/21/how-do-you-like-your-science-fiction-ten-authors-weigh-in-on-hard-vs-soft-sf/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404025029/https://www.tor.com/2016/01/21/how-do-you-like-your-science-fiction-ten-authors-weigh-in-on-hard-vs-soft-sf/ |archive-date=4 April 2019 |access-date=4 April 2019 |website=Tor.com}}</ref> Recent efforts to intensify or develop links between science and non-scientific disciplines, such as literature or poetry, include the ''Creative Writing Science'' resource developed through the Royal Literary Fund.<ref>{{cite web |first=Mario |last=Petrucci |url=http://writeideas.org.uk/creativescience/index.htm |title=Creative Writing – Science |access-date=27 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106015539/http://writeideas.org.uk/creativescience/index.htm |archive-date=6 January 2009}}</ref>
=== Anti-science attitudes === {{Main|Antiscience}} While the scientific method is broadly accepted in the scientific community, some fractions of society reject certain scientific positions or are sceptical about science. Examples are the common notion that COVID-19 is not a major health threat to the US (held by 39% of Americans in August 2021)<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Tyson |first1=Alec |last2=Funk |first2=Cary |last3=Kennedy |first3=Brian |last4=Johnson |first4=Courtney |date=15 September 2021 |title=Majority in U.S. Says Public Health Benefits of COVID-19 Restrictions Worth the Costs, Even as Large Shares Also See Downsides |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/09/15/majority-in-u-s-says-public-health-benefits-of-covid-19-restrictions-worth-the-costs-even-as-large-shares-also-see-downsides/ |access-date=4 August 2022 |website=Pew Research Center Science & Society |archive-date=9 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220809114234/https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/09/15/majority-in-u-s-says-public-health-benefits-of-covid-19-restrictions-worth-the-costs-even-as-large-shares-also-see-downsides/ |url-status=live}}</ref> or the belief that climate change is not a major threat to the US (also held by 40% of Americans, in late 2019 and early 2020).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kennedy |first=Brian |title=U.S. concern about climate change is rising, but mainly among Democrats |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/16/u-s-concern-about-climate-change-is-rising-but-mainly-among-democrats/ |access-date=4 August 2022 |website=Pew Research Center |date=16 April 2020 |archive-date=3 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803101033/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/16/u-s-concern-about-climate-change-is-rising-but-mainly-among-democrats/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Psychologists have pointed to several factors driving rejection of scientific results:<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Philipp-Muller |first1=Aviva |last2=Lee |first2=Spike W. S. |last3=Petty |first3=Richard E. |date=26 July 2022 |title=Why are people antiscience, and what can we do about it? |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=119 |issue=30 |article-number=e2120755119 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2120755119 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=9335320 |pmid=35858405 |bibcode=2022PNAS..11920755P}}</ref> * Scientific authorities are sometimes seen as inexpert, untrustworthy, or biased. * Some marginalised social groups hold anti-science attitudes, in part because these groups have often been exploited in unethical experiments.<ref>{{cite journal |title=A Test of Three Theories of Anti-Science Attitudes |year=2008 |doi=10.1080/00380237.2008.10571338 |last1=Gauchat |first1=Gordon William |journal=Sociological Focus |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=337–357 |s2cid=144645723}}</ref> * Messages from scientists may contradict deeply held existing beliefs or morals. Anti-science attitudes often seem to be caused by fear of rejection in social groups. For instance, climate change is perceived as a threat by only 22% of Americans on the right side of the political spectrum, but by 85% on the left.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Poushter |first1=Jacob |last2=Fagan |first2=Moira |last3=Gubbala |first3=Sneha |date=31 August 2022 |title=Climate Change Remains Top Global Threat Across 19-Country Survey |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/08/31/climate-change-remains-top-global-threat-across-19-country-survey/ |access-date=5 September 2022 |website=Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project |archive-date=31 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220831225832/https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/08/31/climate-change-remains-top-global-threat-across-19-country-survey/ |url-status=live}}</ref> That is, if someone on the left would not consider climate change as a threat, this person may face contempt and be rejected in that social group. In fact, people may rather deny a scientifically accepted fact than lose or jeopardise their social status.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McRaney |first=David |title=How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion |publisher=Portfolio/Penguin |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-593-19029-6 |location=New York}}</ref>
=== Politics === {{See also|Politicization of science}} [[File:2021 Survey on existence of global warming and responsibility for climate change - bar chart.svg|alt=Result in bar graph of two questions ("Is global warming occurring?" and "Are oil/gas companies responsible?"), showing large discrepancies between American Democrats and Republicans|thumb|Public opinion on global warming in the United States by political party<ref>{{cite news |last1=McGreal |first1=Chris |date=26 October 2021 |title=Revealed: 60% of Americans say oil firms are to blame for the climate crisis |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/26/climate-change-poll-oil-gas-companies-environment |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026122356/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/26/climate-change-poll-oil-gas-companies-environment |archive-date=26 October 2021 |quote=Source: Guardian/Vice/CCN/YouGov poll. Note: ±4% margin of error.}}</ref>|upright=1.4]]
Attitudes towards science are often determined by political opinions and goals. Government, business and advocacy groups have been known to use legal and economic pressure to influence scientific researchers. Many factors can act as facets of the politicisation of science such as anti-intellectualism, perceived threats to religious beliefs, and fear for business interests.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Goldberg |first1=Jeanne |year=2017 |title=The Politicization of Scientific Issues: Looking through Galileo's Lens or through the Imaginary Looking Glass |url=https://www.csicop.org/si/show/politicization_of_scientific_issues |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |volume=41 |issue=5 |pages=34–39 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180816182350/https://www.csicop.org/si/show/politicization_of_scientific_issues |archive-date=16 August 2018 |access-date=16 August 2018}}</ref> Politicisation of science is usually accomplished when scientific information is presented in a way that emphasises the uncertainty associated with the scientific evidence.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bolsen |first1=Toby |last2=Druckman |first2=James N. |author2-link=James N. Druckman |year=2015 |title=Counteracting the Politicization of Science |journal=Journal of Communication |issue=65 |page=746}}</ref> Tactics such as shifting conversation, failing to acknowledge facts, and capitalising on doubt of scientific consensus have been used to gain more attention for views that have been undermined by scientific evidence.<ref name="Freudenberg2008">{{cite journal |last1=Freudenberg |first1=William F. |last2=Gramling |first2=Robert |last3=Davidson |first3=Debra J. |year=2008 |title=Scientific Certainty Argumentation Methods (SCAMs): Science and the Politics of Doubt |url=http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/students/envs_5720/freudenberg_etal_2008.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Sociological Inquiry |volume=78 |issue=1 |pages=2–38 |doi=10.1111/j.1475-682X.2008.00219.x |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126214329/http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/students/envs_5720/freudenberg_etal_2008.pdf |archive-date=26 November 2020 |access-date=12 April 2020 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Examples of issues that have involved the politicisation of science include the global warming controversy, health effects of pesticides, and health effects of tobacco.<ref name="Freudenberg2008" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=van der Linden |first1=Sander |last2=Leiserowitz |first2=Anthony |last3=Rosenthal |first3=Seth |last4=Maibach |first4=Edward |year=2017 |title=Inoculating the Public against Misinformation about Climate Change |url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/270860/1/global%20challenges.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Global Challenges |volume=1 |issue=2 |page=1 |doi=10.1002/gch2.201600008 |pmc=6607159 |pmid=31565263 |bibcode=2017GloCh...100008V |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200404185312/https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/270860/global%20challenges.pdf?sequence=1 |archive-date=4 April 2020 |access-date=25 August 2019}}</ref>
=== Challenges === {{See also|Criticism of science|Academic bias}} The replication crisis is an ongoing systemic crisis that affects parts of science. The results of a fraction of scientific studies have been proven to be unreproducible.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1038/515009a |title=Metascience could rescue the 'replication crisis' |journal=Nature |volume=515 |issue=7525 |page=9 |year=2014 |last1=Schooler |first1=J. W. |pmid=25373639 |bibcode=2014Natur.515....9S |doi-access=free}}</ref> The crisis has long-standing roots; the phrase was coined in the early 2010s<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1177/1745691612465253 |title=Editors' Introduction to the Special Section on Replicability in Psychological Science: A Crisis of Confidence? |journal=Perspectives on Psychological Science |volume=7 |issue=6 |pages=528–530 |year=2012 |last1=Pashler |first1=Harold |last2=Wagenmakers |first2=Eric Jan |pmid=26168108 |s2cid=26361121 |doi-access=free}}</ref> as part of a growing awareness of the problem. A 2026 replication study found low replication rates in social and behavioural sciences (business, economics, education, political science, psychology and sociology).<ref name="c901">{{cite journal | last1=Tyner | first1=Andrew H. | last2=Abatayo | first2=Anna Lou | last3=Daley | first3=Mason | last4=Field | first4=Samuel | last5=Fox | first5=Nicholas | title=Investigating the replicability of the social and behavioural sciences | journal=Nature | volume=652 | issue=8108 | date=2026-04-01 | issn=0028-0836 | doi=10.1038/s41586-025-10078-y | pages=143–150 |display-authors=1}}</ref> The replication crisis represents an important body of research in metascience, which aims to improve the quality of all scientific research, scientific integrity while reducing waste.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ioannidis |first1=John P. A. |last2=Fanelli |first2=Daniele |last3=Dunne |first3=Debbie Drake |last4=Goodman |first4=Steven N. |date=2 October 2015 |title=Meta-research: Evaluation and Improvement of Research Methods and Practices |journal=PLOS Biology |volume=13 |issue=10 |pages=–1002264 |doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002264 |pmid=26431313 |pmc=4592065 |issn=1545-7885 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
The term scientific misconduct refers to situations such as where researchers have intentionally misrepresented their published data or have purposely given credit for a discovery to the wrong person.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Coping with fraud |journal=The COPE Report 1999 |pages=11–18 |url=http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/reports/1999/1999pdf3.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928151119/http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/reports/1999/1999pdf3.pdf |quote=It is 10 years, to the month, since Stephen Lock ... Reproduced with kind permission of the Editor, The Lancet. |archive-date=28 September 2007 |url-status=usurped |access-date=21 July 2011}}</ref> An area of study or speculation that masquerades as science in an attempt to claim legitimacy that it would not otherwise be able to achieve is sometimes referred to as pseudoscience, fringe science, or junk science.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2021/entries/pseudo-science |title=Science and Pseudoscience |at=Section 2: The "science" of pseudoscience |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |first1=Sven Ove |last1=Hansson |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |date=3 September 2008 |access-date=28 May 2022 |archive-date=29 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029205141/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2021/entries/pseudo-science/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Shermer |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Shermer |year=1997 |title=Why people believe weird things: pseudoscience, superstition, and other confusions of our time |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780965594875 |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=W. H. Freeman & Co. |isbn=978-0-7167-3090-3 |page=17}}</ref> Physicist Richard Feynman coined the term "cargo cult science" for cases in which researchers believe, and at a glance, look like they are doing science but lack the honesty to allow their results to be rigorously evaluated.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://neurotheory.columbia.edu/~ken/cargo_cult.html |title=Cargo Cult Science |last=Feynman |first=Richard |year=1974 |website=Center for Theoretical Neuroscience |publisher=Columbia University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050304032544/http://neurotheory.columbia.edu/~ken/cargo_cult.html |archive-date=4 March 2005 |access-date=4 November 2016}}</ref> Various types of commercial advertising, ranging from hype to fraud, may fall into these categories. Science has been described as "the most important tool" for separating valid claims from invalid ones.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Novella |first=Steven |title=The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake |title-link=The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe (book) |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4736-9641-9 |page=162 |author-link=Steven Novella}}</ref> Sometimes, research can be well-intended but is incorrect, obsolete, incomplete, or over-simplified expositions of scientific ideas.
Academic freedom can be reduced by scientific censorship caused by governments, institutions, other scientists or self-censorship.<ref name="h812">{{cite journal | last1=Clark | first1=Cory J. | last2=Jussim | first2=Lee | last3=Frey | first3=Komi | last4=Stevens | first4=Sean T. | last5=al-Gharbi | first5=Musa | last6=Aquino | first6=Karl | last7=Bailey | first7=J. Michael | last8=Barbaro | first8=Nicole | last9=Baumeister | first9=Roy F. | last10=Bleske-Rechek | first10=April | last11=Buss | first11=David | last12=Ceci | first12=Stephen | last13=Del Giudice | first13=Marco | last14=Ditto | first14=Peter H. | last15=Forgas | first15=Joseph P. | last16=Geary | first16=David C. | last17=Geher | first17=Glenn | last18=Haider | first18=Sarah | last19=Honeycutt | first19=Nathan | last20=Joshi | first20=Hrishikesh | last21=Krylov | first21=Anna I. | last22=Loftus | first22=Elizabeth | last23=Loury | first23=Glenn | last24=Lu | first24=Louise | last25=Macy | first25=Michael | last26=Martin | first26=Chris C. | last27=McWhorter | first27=John | last28=Miller | first28=Geoffrey | last29=Paresky | first29=Pamela | last30=Pinker | first30=Steven | last31=Reilly | first31=Wilfred | last32=Salmon | first32=Catherine | last33=Stewart-Williams | first33=Steve | last34=Tetlock | first34=Philip E. | last35=Williams | first35=Wendy M. | last36=Wilson | first36=Anne E. | last37=Winegard | first37=Bo M. | last38=Yancey | first38=George | last39=von Hippel | first39=William | title=Prosocial motives underlie scientific censorship by scientists: A perspective and research agenda | journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume=120 | issue=48 | date=2023 | issn=0027-8424 | doi=10.1073/pnas.2301642120 | url=https://pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2301642120 | access-date=2026-05-08 | page=}}</ref> Some scientists were found to justify scientific censorship with harm avoidance.<ref name="h812"/> There can also be an element of political bias or ideological bias in science. Scientists in some countries were found to have a bias in political party preferences compared to the general population.<ref name="y499">{{cite journal | last1=Duarte | first1=José L. | last2=Crawford | first2=Jarret T. | last3=Stern | first3=Charlotta | last4=Haidt | first4=Jonathan | last5=Jussim | first5=Lee | last6=Tetlock | first6=Philip E. | title=Political diversity will improve social psychological science | journal=Behavioral and Brain Sciences | volume=38 | date=2015 | issn=0140-525X | doi=10.1017/S0140525X14000430 | url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0140525X14000430/type/journal_article | access-date=2026-02-12 | page=}}</ref>
== See also == * List of scientific occupations * List of years in science
== Notes == {{notelist}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Wiktionary inline|science}} {{EB1911 poster|Science}} {{Philosophy of science}} {{Science and the public}} {{Glossaries of science and engineering}} {{Science and technology studies}} {{Subject bar|auto=1|portal1=Science}}
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