Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability 1

Science is an adventure of the human spirit. It is essentiallyan artistic enterprise, stimulated largely by curiosity, servedlargely by disciplined imagination, and based largely on faithin the reasonableness, order, and beauty of the universe.WARREN WEAVERThis chapter addresses the following questions:Ask a questionDo experimentsand collect dataInterpret data■What is science, and what do scientists do?■■What are major components and behaviors of complexsystems?What are the basic forms of matter? What makesmatter useful to us as a resource?Formulate hypothesisto explain dataWell-tested andaccepted patternsin data becomescientific laws■What are the major forms of energy? What makesenergy useful to us as a resource?Do more experimentsto test hypothesis■■What scientific law governs changes of matter fromone physical or chemical form to another?What three main types of nuclear changes can matterundergo?Revise hypothesisif necessary■■What are two scientific laws governing changes ofenergy from one form to another?How are the scientific laws governing changes ofmatter and energy from one form to anotherrelated to resource use and environmentaldegradation?Well-tested andacceptedhypothesesbecomescientific theoriesFigure 3-2 What scientists do.3-1 THE NATURE OF SCIENCEWhat Is Science and What Do Scientists Do?Searching for Order in NatureScientists collect data, form hypotheses, and developtheories, models, and laws about how nature works.Science is an attempt to discover order in the naturalworld and use that knowledge to describe what islikely to happen in nature. Its goal is to increase our understandingof the natural world. Science is based onthe fundamental assumption that events in the naturalworld follow orderly patterns that can be understoodthrough careful observation and experimentation.Figure 3-2 summarizes the scientific process. Tracethe pathways in this figure.The first thing scientists do is ask a question oridentify a problem to be investigated. Then they collectscientific data, or facts, related to the problem or question,by making observations and measurements. Theyoften conduct experiments to study some phenomenonunder known conditions. The resulting scientificdata or facts must be confirmed by repeated observationsand measurements, ideally by several differentinvestigators.The primary goal of science is not the data or factsthemselves. Instead science seeks new ideas, principles,or models that connect and explain certain scientificdata and descriptions of what is likely to happenin nature. Scientists working on a particular problemtry to come up with a variety of possible explanations,or scientific hypotheses, of what they (or other scientists)observe in nature. A scientific hypothesis is anunconfirmed explanation of an observed phenomenonthat can be tested by further research.One method scientists use to test a hypothesis isto develop a model, an approximate or simplified representationor simulation of a system being studied. Itmay be an actual working model, a mental model, apictorial model, a computer model, or a mathematicalmodel.Three important features of the scientific processare skepticism, reproducibility, and peer review of resultsby other scientists. Scientists tend to be highly skepticalof any new data or hypotheses until they can beconfirmed or verified.Peers, or scientists working in the same field,check for reproducibility by repeating and checkingout one another’s work to see if the data can be reproducedand whether proposed hypotheses are reasonableand useful.Peer review happens when scientists openly publishdetails of the methods they used, the results ofhttp://biology.brookscole.com/miller1433