• Question: what is science for

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      Asked by anon-286544 on 18 Mar 2021.
      • Photo: Martin McCoustra

        Martin McCoustra answered on 18 Mar 2021:

        There are many reason for doing science. The first is to understand how things work and how to make useful new things. You might not think about it this way but the observation of fires started by seeing the results of lightening strikes and would have led early man to realise that they could use it to keep themselves warm, to cook food and even transform one material into another… for example fire hardening wood to make spears. It took experiments to make fire controllably rather than carrying it around in a bowl all the time. Doing experiments to learn things is the foundation of science. The only difference today is that we do science both to give us new technology but also just to push the boundaries of what we know.

      • Photo: Atia Azad

        Atia Azad answered on 18 Mar 2021:

        Science is for understanding things such as the human body, nature, planets, universe, chemical reactions. The list is very long. Sometimes the discoveries are used to benefit us. For example, new medicine, vaccines, reducing carbon emissions, devices such as smartphones and electric cars. Other times we want to find an answer because it’s interesting and we are curious!

      • Photo: Jesko Koehnke

        Jesko Koehnke answered on 18 Mar 2021:

        The scientific method is by far the most important concept that humans have developed. Ever. You just have to follow a few very simple rules:

        Test idea through observation and experiment
        Build on the ideas that pass the tests
        Reject the ideas that fail the tests
        Follow the evidence wherever it may lead you and question everything

        Without generations of people following these rules we would not have the things that shape our lives: No medication, no modern medicine, no technology, no understanding of our place in the universe.

        The science we do every day is part of this incredible success story.

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