Author: Professor Dr. Syed Arif
Kamal Next Article Printable Version PDF
What is Science?
Science
and its study occupy most important part in today's education. But how many
people know what really science is and what is not. Can science answer all of
the questions faced by the mankind? Certainly science has its limitations. It
can only deal with what can be observed or felt. It cannot male value
judgments. There are also limitations of time to find the answer as well as
lack of absolute certainty in the answers. Even well-accepted theories have a
dead end somewhere. Consider big bang theory of creation of the universe. What
was there before the big bang? How was there such huge energy concentrated in a
small volume? These questions and others shall continue to haunt the mind of
the inquiring and the seeker of the truth.
Time
and again persons from outside the mainstream of science claim that they have
made a breakthrough. They seem to have proved one of the established theories
to be false. Are they always wrong? Beware that people who did not hold a
degree in physics made some of the major contributions in Physics. Eugene P.
Wigner, a Nobel Laureate in Physics and contributor in nuclear,
particle and solid-state physics held an engineering degree. Can anyone
overlook his contributions in physics? What should, then, be the criterion to
judge a theory to be seriously considered? Let us find out if there are some
established rules to seriously consider a theory. To do so we must first
determine what science really is all about.
One
of the schools of thought claims that all scientific studies start with doubts
and conflicts. Somewhere along a line a conflict starts between a theory
and the available observations. A theorist tries to understand nature
and builds an idea (hypothesis) on the basis of available knowledge
and then suggests to an observer to look for certain predictions.
Examples
of a few hypotheses are:
- Heavier
bodies fall towards earth with larger acceleration.
- Moon
does not have its own light but glows because of the reflection from sun.
The
following are not scientific hypotheses (why?):
- Arshad
is a good boy.
- War
is bad for mankind.
- The
reward for paying in congregation is twenty-five times as compared to
praying individually.
An observer, then goes out and sees if the
theorist's idea is true. If an idea matches the reality becomes a model
of the real world (Fig. 1). If an idea does not match with the real world it
becomes a conjecture. If an idea becomes a model many people along the
globe check this idea in different circumstances.
If an idea becomes a model many people along the globe
check this idea in different circumstances.
If the idea matches the real world in all situations it becomes a theory. For
example, it took 12 years (1967-1979) for the model of electroweak interaction
to become the Glashow-Weinberg- Salaam Theory. If a theory predicts correctly
and it can be found on a larger time scale then it becomes a natural law.
Examples may be cited from classical mechanics. Everyone is familiar with the
" Newton's laws of Motion" and the "Law of Universal
Gravitation". It implies that a natural law depends on the available
information of the physical world and the basic axioms of the mathematics used.
A theorist goes on modeling in this way and always works for a better
understanding of the natural world. There is always a possibility of change in
basic physical information or in the basic axioms of mathematics. Whenever this
happens a theorist searches for a new idea to revolutionize the understanding
of the real world.
Fig. 1. Development
of a scientific theory
In
the next article,
we shall see basics of the scientific method. Children must be taught
to think scientifically. The logic of science is not automatically built in the
human mind. It must be inculcated. To see this point ask ten children of class
five or six the following question:
Drop two balls. One directly towards
the ground; the other given a small horizontal velocity. Which of the balls
reaches the ground first? One would be surprised to learn
that most of the children give the answer: The
first ball reaches the ground earlier. Their perception is that the
first ball travels a shorter distance. Next, ask them to perform the actual
experiment. They will, immediately, realize that their answers were incorrect.
Both the balls would reach the ground at the same time because the downward
velocity is independent of the horizontal velocity. Children must be
taught science in such a way to develop qualities of creative thinking and
critical analysis, which are essential for a student of science. Creative
thinking may be developed if the students are encouraged to develop alternative
explanations of the topics discussed in the class and persuaded to check the validity
of their assumptions. The students can, critically, analyze a situation if they
have a thorough understanding of the principles involved. Critical analyses
also require an awareness of the validity and the limitations of assumptions
made for the solution of a problem.
Appeared in the NEWS International, Karachi, Technotalk
Page, July 21, 1997
Updated: February
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