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↗ Philosophy of Science ↗ World's Science & Technology History
Natural science or empirical science is a branch of science concerned with the description, understanding, and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation.[1] Mechanisms such as peer review and reproducibility of findings are used to try to ensure the validity of scientific advances.
Natural science can be divided into two main branches: life science and physical science. Life science is alternatively known as biology. Physical science is subdivided into physics, astronomy, Earth science, and chemistry. These branches of natural science may be further divided into more specialized branches, also known as fields. As empirical sciences, natural sciences use tools from the formal sciences, such as mathematics and logic, converting information about nature into measurements that can be explained as clear statements of the "laws of nature".[2]
Modern natural science succeeded more classical approaches to natural philosophy. Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, René Descartes, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton debated the benefits of a more mathematical as against a more experimental method in investigating nature. Still, philosophical perspectives, conjectures, and presuppositions, often overlooked, remain necessary in natural science.[3] Systematic data collection, including discovery science, succeeded natural history, which emerged in the 16th century by describing and classifying plants, animals, minerals, and so on.[4] Today, "natural history" suggests observational descriptions aimed at popular audiences.[5]
A. Piccard, E. Henriot, P. Ehrenfest, E. Herzen, Th. De Donder, E. Schrödinger, J.E. Verschaffelt, W. Pauli, W. Heisenberg, R.H. Fowler, L. Brillouin;
P. Debye, M. Knudsen, W.L. Bragg, H.A. Kramers, P.A.M. Dirac, A.H. Compton, L. de Broglie, M. Born, N. Bohr;
I. Langmuir, M. Planck, M. Skłodowska-Curie, H.A. Lorentz, A. Einstein, P. Langevin, Ch. E. Guye, C.T.R. Wilson, O.W. Richardson
Fifth conference participants, 1927. Institut International de Physique Solvay in Leopold Park.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solvay_conference_1927.jpg
↗ Health Sciences and Medicine ↗ Military Science & Technology ↗ Engineering & Technology
#science #engineering
科学家经常要问“是什么”“为什么”，但是科学家的“为什么”往往都能转化成“是什么”，他们关心于了解那些人类尚未确切、完全、详细了解的知识，满足人类的好奇心；工程师则经常要问“如何做”，利用科学家发现的知识，制造对人类有用的物体或工具。从经济的角度来说，科学家不必关心经济问题，他们想法子获得必要的经费（如政府拨款、企业投资、私人赞助等），然后专心去研究。工程师则相反，他们必须使制造出来的物体，在经济上是可行的，否则没有任何用处。如果一件产品的成本高于其市场价值，使得无人光顾，这种产品就无法生产，所以对工程师来说，经济观念是必备的。例如像科幻小说所描写的“按12个按钮，再拉下三个把手，就可以给面包片抹上奶油”一类的机器，在理论上是完全可以制造出来的，但工程师决不会制造这种机器。从相互包含的角度来说，科学家可能也需要完成某些工程作业（比如设计试验仪器，制造原型），工程师经常也要做研究。从目的的先后顺序来说，可以说科学家为了学习而制造，而工程师为了制造而学习。从工程和科学都要做的研究来说，工程学上的研究与科学研究也有不同之处。它经常涉及到的领域，基本物理化学已经很好的被了解了，而这些问题却很难被精确的解决。工程学的研究便是要寻找可能近似方案。