What is science?

科學首先指對應於自然領域的知識，經擴展、引用至社會、思維等領域，如社會科學。它涵蓋兩方面含義：1）致力於揭示自然真象而對自然作理由充分的觀察或研究。這一觀察通常指可通過必要的方法進行的，或能通過科學方法（scientific method）——一套用以評價經驗知識的程序而進行的。2）通過這樣的研究而獲得的有組織體系的知識。
根據現代漢語詞典(中國社會科學院語言研究所詞典編輯室，1978)，科學被解釋為:(1)反映自然、社會、思維等的客觀規律的分科的知識體系。(2)合乎科學(精神、方法等)的
科學知識指覆蓋一般真理或普遍規律的運作的知識或知識體系，尤其指通過科學方法獲得或驗證過的。科學知識極度依賴邏輯。
不過，有人認為，從神學角度看，科學是神學，包括佛學，道學，玄學等超自然領域在三維空間內法則的通俗化、公式化表達。

英文中科學(science)一詞來源於拉丁文scientia，意為「知識」、「學問」。在中國，科學一詞是外來詞，以前譯為格致，即格物致知，以格物而得的知識是科學。明末清初，來華的歐洲耶穌會傳教士熊明遇的《格致草》、湯若望的《坤輿格致》等書的名稱就使用了「格致」一詞。在鴉片戰爭以後，依舊沿用這一稱謂。中日甲午戰爭以前出版的許多科學書籍多冠以「格致」或「格物」之名。許多人認為，最早使用「科學」一詞的學者大概是康有為。他出版的《日本書目志》中就列舉了《科學入門》、《科學之原理》等書目。也有許多人認為「科學」一詞是從日本傳入的。辛亥革命時期，中國人使用「科學」一詞的頻率逐漸增多，出現了「科學」與「格致」並存的局面，新文化運動時又稱為「賽先生」(science)。在中華民國時期，通過中國科學社的科學傳播活動，「科學」一詞才取代「格致」。

科學與哲學
近代的科學，旨在理性、客觀的前提下，用知識（理論）與實驗完整地證明出的真理。是指以培根倡導的實證主義，伽利略為實踐先驅的實驗方法為基礎，以獲取關於世界的系統知識的研究。分為以自然現象為對象的自然科學和以社會現象為對象的社會科學。與藝術，哲學，宗教，文學等相區別。現代科學，還包括以人類思維存在為對象的思維科學。

對於科學的核心特徵或者說所謂科學精神，隨著人類的進步，有不同的觀點，目前一般認為科學具有如下特徵：
1.理性客觀：從事科學研究一般不以「神」、「鬼」、「上帝」為前提（一些科學傢具有宗教信仰，但是科學本身是理性思維的結果），一切以客觀事實為基礎。
2.可證偽：這是來自卡爾·波普爾的觀點，他認為科學的理論不應當在一切情況下都成立，必須存在一個錯誤的可能（即，當某種情況出現時，就可以說明科學理論是錯誤的），這樣，我們就可以通過觀察證偽的現象來驗證科學理論的正確與可靠。
3.存在一個適用範圍：也就是說不存在一個放之四海皆準的絕對真理。
4.普遍必然性：科學理論來自於實踐，也必須回到實踐，它必須能夠解釋其適用範圍內的已知的所有事實。
科學還可以分為從理論和應用等多個層次。
在與社會進步的相互作用中，科學對實踐的指導作用得到不斷加強，科學體系本身也不斷壯大，它對人類歷史的重大影響日趨顯著。

科學領域
自然科學

生命科學
生物學
解剖學
進化論
遺傳學
古生物學
生物化學
自然科學
化學
物理學
天文學
地質學和地球科學
數學和統計學
哲學和邏輯學
科學哲學
社會科學

人類學
考古學
經濟學、商業和工業
工業機構和勞動科學
地理學
語言學和語言
政治學
心理學
社會學
組織行為學
工程學

土木工程
建築學和建築結構
橋樑、港口、隧道、大壩
測量學、測量和地圖、繪圖學、城市規劃、水處理和排水工程
交通
能源
原料和加工
圖書情報
計算科學
健康科學
醫學
生物工藝學
農業
軍事技術
武器工業
電信技術

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SEIENCE=科學
I.S=''鐘合''科學

Science in the broadest sense refers to any system of knowledge attained by verifiable means.In a more restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on empiricism, experimentation, and methodological naturalism, as well as to the organized body of knowledge humans have gained by such research. This article focuses on the meaning of science in the latter sense.



Scientists maintain that scientific investigation must adhere to the scientific method, a process for evaluating empirical knowledge that explains observable events in nature as results of natural causes, rejecting supernatural notions.



Fields of science are commonly classified along two major lines:









Natural sciences, the study of the natural phenomena;

Social sciences, the systematic study of human behavior and societies.


Mathematics has both similarities and differences compared to other fields of science. It is similar to other sciences, because it is a rigorous, structured study of topics such as quantity, structure, space, and change. It is, however, different in its method of arriving at results. Mathematics as a whole is vital to the sciences — indeed, major advances in mathematics have often led to major advances in other sciences. Certain aspects of mathematics are indispensable for the formation of hypotheses, theories, and laws, both in discovering and describing how things work (natural sciences) and how people think and act (social sciences).



Science as defined above is sometimes termed pure science in order to differentiate it from applied science, the latter being the application of scientific research to human needs.










The Bohr model of the atom, like many ideas in the history of science, was at first prompted by and later partially disproved by experiment.


The word science comes from the Latin word scientia for knowledge, which in turn comes from scio - I know. The Indo-European root means to discern or to separate, akin to Sanskrit chyati, he cuts off, Greek schizein, to split, Latin scindere, to split. From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, science or scientia meant any systematic or exact recorded knowledge. Science therefore had the same sort of very broad meaning that philosophy had at that time. In some languages, including French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, the word corresponding to science still carries this meaning.



From classical times until the advent of the modern era, philosophy was divided into natural philosophy and moral philosophy. In the 1800s, the term natural philosophy gradually gave way to the term natural science. Natural science was gradually specialized to its current domain, which typically includes the physical sciences and biological sciences. The social sciences, inheriting portions of the realm of moral philosophy, are currently also included under the auspices of science to the extent that these disciplines use empirical methods. As currently understood, moral philosophy still retains the study of ethics, regarded as a branch of philosophy and one of the three classical normative sciences

Scientists use model to refer to a description of something, specifically one which can be used to make predictions that can be tested by experiment or observation. A hypothesis is a contention that has been neither well supported nor yet ruled out by experiment. A theory, in the context of science, is a logically self-consistent model or framework for describing the behavior of a certain natural phenomena. A theory typically describes the behavior of much broader sets of phenomena than a hypothesis — commonly, a large number of hypotheses may be logically bound together by a single theory. A physical law or law of nature is a scientific generalization based on a sufficiently large number of empirical observations that it is taken as fully verified.