by Charles Peterson

Created on: June 29, 2009   Last Updated: July 08, 2009

Science means a collection of facts, ideas, and procedures that represent learning in a branch of knowledge.

How does science come up with these ideas? There is a method to its madness. I say madness because when an idea is new everybody is against it, and when an idea is old it gets dumbed down toward superstition. This is why we need the special breed of people in society whom we call scientists.

Science uses the method of observation and testing to verify a fact of nature or crystallize an idea.

At first one doesn't even know jhe (he or she) is looking for the particular thing. As time goes on jhe (he or she) notices a certain regularity in nature. Other people may have noticed this same regularity. That's OK. There is no reason why a scientist has to discover something new. It's a way of life.

If the item is new, which a scientist knows how to check by joh (his or her) practice of how to search through journals, i.e. look things up, or ask about among the colleagues in the establishment who would know about things in this particular branch, jhe (he or she) usually wants to publish joh (his or her) discovery or invention.

But the observation must be tested. Other people have to be able to appreciate the same fact, idea, or procedure in the same objective way. A fortiori, in taking the trouble to explain joh (his or her) findings, jhe (he or she) usually comes up with a lot of other observations in the same neighborhood, which can also be verified, which increase the understanding of the initial thing and lend more stability and credibility to the theory.

A good example to show how observation and testing go hand in hand to produce a theory which adds to the knowledge, consider the branch of knowledge known as physics. Galileo Galilei began our understanding of the movement of objects (until Galileo came along people had a dim idea that things moved, but they didn't know much about it). Somehow, through some observations, Galileo got the idea that mass was different than weight. He might have gotten onto this track by thinking about momentum which we define today as mass times velocity. Everybody knows that when an SUV hits you it does more damage than a compact car. This is why SUV drivers are more polite and considerate.

Galileo tested his observation that mass and weight are different by climbing the Tower of Piza and dropping a ball of iron and a ball of feathers simultaneously. They both struck the ground at exactly

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