Chapter 1 Introduction to Geoscience
1.1 The Process of Science
Matthew R. Fisher
Like other natural sciences, geology or geoscience is a science that gathers knowledge about the natural world. The methods of science include careful observation, record keeping, logical and mathematical reasoning, experimentation, and submitting conclusions to the scrutiny of others. Science also requires considerable imagination and creativity; a well-designed experiment is commonly described as elegant or beautiful. Science has considerable practical implications and some science is dedicated to practical applications, such as the prevention of disease (figure 1.2). Other science proceeds largely motivated by curiosity. Whatever its goal, there is no doubt that science has transformed human existence and will continue to do so.
The Nature of Science
Geology is a science, but what exactly is science? What does the study of geology share with other scientific disciplines? Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning “knowledge”) can be defined as a process of gaining knowledge about the natural world.
Science is a very specific way of learning about the world. The history of the past 500 years demonstrates that science is a very powerful way of gaining knowledge about the world; it is largely responsible for the technological revolutions that have taken place during this time. There are areas of knowledge, however, that the methods of science cannot be applied to. These include such things as morality, aesthetics, or spirituality. Science cannot investigate these areas because they are outside the realm of material phenomena, the phenomena of matter and energy, and cannot be observed and measured.
The scientific method is a method of research with defined steps that include experiments and careful observation. The steps of the scientific method will be examined in detail later, but one of the most important aspects of this method is the testing of hypotheses. A hypothesis is an proposed explanatory statement, for a given natural phenomenon, that can be tested. Hypotheses, or tentative explanations, are different than a scientific theory. A scientific theory is a widely-accepted, thoroughly tested and confirmed explanation for a set of observations or phenomena. Scientific theory is the foundation of scientific knowledge. In addition, in many scientific disciplines there are scientific laws, often expressed in mathematical formulas, which describe how elements of nature will behave under certain specific conditions, but they do not offer explanations for why they occur.
Natural Sciences
What would you expect to see in a museum of natural sciences? Frogs? Plants? Dinosaur skeletons? Exhibits about how the brain functions? A planetarium? Gems and minerals? Or maybe all of the above? Science includes such diverse fields as astronomy, computer sciences, psychology, biology, and mathematics. However, those fields of science related to the physical world and its phenomena a