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.
Science can be divided into different branches based on the subject of study. The physical
sciences study the inorganic world and comprise the fields of astronomy, physics, chemistry, and
the Earth sciences. The biological sciences such as biology and medicine study the organic world
of life and its processes. Social sciences like anthropology and economics study the social and
cultural aspects of human behavior.
Science is further treated in a number of articles. For the history of Western and Eastern
science, see science, history of. For the conceptualization of science and its interrelationships
with culture, see science, philosophy of. For the basic aspects of the scientific approach, see
physical science, principles of; and scientific method.
What is science?
When you hear the word ‘science’ what do you think of? Lab coats and test tubes?
Telescopes and stars? Einstein? Dog-eared text books? While these represent various aspects of
science, none of these truly embodies ‘science’ as a whole, because as a field it is so multi-
faceted.

Science can be thought of as both a body of knowledge (the things we have already
discovered), and the process of acquiring new knowledge (through observation and
experimentation—testing and hypothesising). Both knowledge and process are interdependent,
since the knowledge acquired depends on the questions asked and the methods used to find the
answers.

The field of ‘science’ is often grouped into:

natural science—life or biological science (the study of living organisms) and physical
science (the study of the material universe including physics, chemistry, space science etc).
social science—the study of society and people (such as anthropology, psychology)
formal science—the study of logic and mathematics
applied science—disciplines that rely on science and use existing scientific knowledge to
develop new applications, such as in engineering, robotics, agriculture and medicine.
Both natural science and social science are known as empirical sciences. This means that
any theories must be based on observable phenomena, reproducibility of results and peer review.
 The most interesting thing about science is that it’s never finished. Every discovery leads
to more questions, new mysteries, to something else that needs explaining. It’s a case of ‘the
more we know, the more we know we know nothing at all’. For example, the discovery of the
double-helix structure of DNA revolutionised our understanding of biology, bringing up whole
new areas to be studied such as genetic modification and synthetic biology.
Even within the ‘body of knowledge’ that science has garnered, nothing is ever ‘proven’.
While we may have a lot of data to support the theory that yes, gravity does exist or that humans
evolved over millions of years, we are constantly refining and reassessing the data. Because of
Einstein, gravity today is not what it was for Newton or Laplace. Any new evidence may support
this theory but it doesn’t prove it. While we accept certain theories as ‘true’, we do this
provisionally. ‘Truth’ today does not guarantee we will not tomorrow find evidence to the
contrary. Science is constantly gathering additional evidence concerning known theories … just
in case.

Science can help us to understand ourselves and our world, to recognise how it works and
where we fit within it. There will always be questions to be answered. What happens after we
die? What causes us to dream? What is consciousness? It is this search for answers, humanity’s
innate curiosity and drive to know ‘why’, that pushes scientific discovery forward. It’s possible
science may one day find the answers, but if not it won’t be for lack of trying.