Assignment #1

Manalo, Claudette Ann C.

Science, Technology and Society/ACT 182

Questions:

1) What is SCIENCE?
2) What are the reliability of scientific theories?
3) What are the ultimate purposes of science?
4) What is something that not yet been fully explained by science?
5) Enumerate and discuss the different scientific method.
6) What is technology?
7) Name @ least 3 Filipino Scientists and their innovation.

Answers:

1) Science, any system of knowledge that is concerned with the physical world and
its phenomena and that entails unbiased observations and systematic
experimentation. In general, a science involves a pursuit of knowledge covering
general truths or the operations of fundamental laws.
2) Science is not about certainty. Science is about finding the most reliable way of
thinking at the present level of knowledge. Science is extremely reliable; it’s not
certain. In fact, not only is it not certain, but it’s the lack of certainty that grounds
it. Scientific ideas are credible not because they are sure but because they’re the
ones that have survived all the possible past critiques and they’re the most
credible because they were put on the table for everybody’s criticism.
3) A primary aim of science is to collect facts (data). An ultimate purpose of science
is to discern the order that exists between and amongst the various facts.
Science as a collective institution aims to produce more and more accurate natural
explanations of how the natural world works, what its components are, and how
the world got to be the way it is now. Classically, science's main goal has been
building knowledge and understanding, regardless of its potential applications
4) Though scientists may have theories about the following phenomena, no one can
say for certain why they occur.
Here are nine mysteries of life that still stump experts everywhere.
a. Scientists aren't sure why people yawn.
b. This mushroom grows only in Texas and Japan, and scientists can't explain it.
c. No one knows why Saturn's north pole has a swirling, hexagon-shaped storm.
d. Humpback whales have gone from being solitary creatures to living in "super-
groups", a shift marine biologists are still trying to suss out.
e. There's no explanation for these curved trees in the 'Dancing Forest' in Russia.
 f. Dark matter isn't like regular matter, and we don't understand much about it.
g. Scientists understand how cats purr, but they're still not sure why they do.
h. We're getting hundreds of unintelligible signals from space every second.
i. There's an otherworldly looking crater in Siberia that hasn't been explained.
5) The scientific method is a systematic way of learning about the world around us
and answering questions. The key difference between the scientific method and
other ways of acquiring knowledge are forming a hypothesis and then testing it
with an experiment.
The Six Steps
The number of steps can vary from one description to another (which mainly
happens when data and analysis are separated into separate steps), however, this is
a fairly standard list of the six scientific method steps that you are expected to
know for any science class:
a. Purpose/Question Ask a question.
b. Research
Conduct background research. Write down your sources so you can cite
your references. In the modern era, a lot of your research may be conducted
online. Scroll to the bottom of articles to check the references. Even if you can't
access the full text of a published article, you can usually view the abstract to see
the summary of other experiments. Interview experts on a topic. The more you
know about a subject, the easier it will be to conduct your investigation.
c. Hypothesis
Propose a hypothesis. This is a sort of educated guess about what you
expect. It is a statement used to predict the outcome of an experiment. Usually, a
hypothesis is written in terms of cause and effect. Alternatively, it may describe
the relationship between two phenomena. One type of hypothesis is the null
hypothesis or the no-difference hypothesis. This is an easy type of hypothesis to
test because it assumes changing a variable will have no effect on the outcome. In
reality, you probably expect a change but rejecting a hypothesis may be more
useful than accepting one.
d. Experiment
Design and perform an experiment to test your hypothesis. An experiment
has an independent and dependent variable. You change or control the
independent variable and record the effect it has on the dependent variable. It's
important to change only one variable for an experiment rather than try to
combine the effects of variables in an experiment. For example, if you want to test
the effects of light intensity and fertilizer concentration on the growth rate of a
plant, you're really looking at two separate experiments.

e. Data/Analysis
 Record observations and analyze the meaning of the data. Often, you'll
prepare a table or graph of the data. Don't throw out data points you think are bad
or that don't support your predictions. Some of the most incredible discoveries in
science were made because the data looked wrong! Once you have the data, you
may need to perform a mathematical analysis to support or refute your hypothesis.
f. Conclusion
Conclude whether to accept or reject your hypothesis. There is no right or
wrong outcome to an experiment, so either result is fine. Accepting a hypothesis
does not necessarily mean it's correct! Sometimes repeating an experiment may
give a different result. In other cases, a hypothesis may predict an outcome, yet
you might draw an incorrect conclusion. Communicate your results. The results
may be compiled into a lab report or formally submitted as a paper. Whether you
accept or reject the hypothesis, you likely learned something about the subject and
may wish to revise the original hypothesis or form a new one for a future
experiment.
6) Technology is the use of scientific knowledge for practical purposes or
applications, whether in industry or in our everyday lives. So, basically, whenever
we use our scientific knowledge to achieve some specific purpose, we're using
technology. Well, there is slightly more to it than that. Technology usually
involves a specific piece of equipment, but that equipment can be incredibly
simple or dazzlingly complex. It can be anything from the discovery of the wheel,
all the way up to computers and MP3 players.
7) a. Lucille Abad Senior science research specialist and chief of the Chemistry
Research Section, Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI)
She developed a plant vitamin – an effective plant growth promoter using
irradiated seaweeds. This research has also been recognized by the Japan-based
Forum for Nuclear Cooperation in Asia.
b. Mario Antonio Jiz II Senior science research specialist, Research Institute
for Tropical Medicine (RITM)
Jiz significantly contributed to the study of schistosomiasis and the
development of a vaccine against this disease. Schistosomiasis is a chronic
disease caused by parasitic worms.
c. Jeffrey Perez Supervising science research specialist, Philippine Institute of
Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs)
"Faultfinder" Perez contributed largely to the better understanding of fault
lines and earthquakes in the Philippines.
References:

1) The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. This article was most recently revised
and updated by Erik Gregersen, Senior Editor.
2) The Universe: Leading Scientists Explore the Origin, Mysteries, and Future of the
Cosmos. Science Is Not About Certainty By Carlo Rovelli
3) Dr. Sheldon Gottlieb in a lecture series at the University of South Alabama-first
sentence
The University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley, and the Regents
of the University of California.-second sentence
4) This article was originally published by Business Insider. 9 Phenomena That
Science Still Can't Explain by Allie Lembo
5) Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. (2020, February 11). Six Steps of the Scientific
Method.
6) What Is Technology? - Definition & Types. (2016, March 25). Retrieved from
https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-technology-definition-types.html.
7) Rappler.com 8 of the leading Filipino scientists who make us proud by Shaira
Panela