Portal:Science
Main page | Categories & Main topics | Related portals & WikiProjects | Things you can do |
Science portal
Science (from the Latin word scientia, meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
The earliest roots of science can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age. The recovery and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic inquiries into Western Europe from the 10th to 13th century revived "natural philosophy", which was later transformed by the Scientific Revolution that began in the 16th century as new ideas and discoveries departed from previous Greek conceptions and traditions. The scientific method soon played a greater role in knowledge creation and it was not until the 19th century that many of the institutional and professional features of science began to take shape; along with the changing of "natural philosophy" to "natural science."
Modern science is typically divided into three major branches that consist of the natural sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, and physics), which study nature in the broadest sense; the social sciences (e.g., economics, psychology, and sociology), which study individuals and societies; and the formal sciences (e.g., logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science), which study abstract concepts. There is disagreement, however, on whether the formal sciences actually constitute a science as they do not rely on empirical evidence. Disciplines that use existing scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as engineering and medicine, are described as applied sciences.
Science is based on research, which is commonly conducted by scientists working in academic and research institutions, government agencies, and companies. The practical impact of scientific research has led to the emergence of science policies that seek to influence the scientific enterprise by prioritizing the development of commercial products, armaments, health care, public infrastructure, and environmental protection. (Full article...)
Selected article
Selected image
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy of the Local Group. Although the Milky Way is but one of billions of galaxies in the universe, the Galaxy has special significance to humanity as it is the home of the Solar System. The term "milky" originates from the hazy band of white light appearing across the celestial sphere visible from Earth, which is composed of stars and other material lying within the galactic plane. The fact that the Milky Way divides the night sky into two roughly equal hemispheres indicates that the solar system lies close to the galactic plane.
Selected biography
Francis Crick, Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004), was a British molecular biologist, physicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of the co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. He, James D. Watson and Maurice Wilkins were jointly awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material" .[2]
Did you know...
- ...that coloration is a property of loudspeakers that causes the speaker to continue to emit sound when an electrical signal stops?
- ...that light in a plasma display is created by phosphors excited by the ultraviolet radiation emitted by a plasma discharge between two flat panels of glass?
- ...that the Great Appalachian Storm of November 1950 led to wind gusts in excess of 100 mph/87 knots across New York, New Jersey, and New England?
- ...that the two human atria do not have valves at their inlets?
Science News
- 24 February 2021 –
- Scientists discover Dzharatitanis kingi, a Diplodocus-like dinosaur fossil, in Uzbekistan. It is the first dinosaur of its kind to be discovered in Asia. (New Scientist)
- 17 February 2021 – Discoveries of exoplanets
- Astronomers announce the discovery of HD 110082 b, a sub-Neptune exoplanet that is three times larger than Earth and which orbits a relatively young star. (Phys.org)
- 5 February 2021 –
- Scientists belonging to a German–Malagasy expedition announce the discovery of Brookesia nana, a lizard found in Madagascar. The male's body spanning only 13.5 millimetres (0.5 in), it is potentially the smallest reptile on Earth. (BBC)
- 22 January 2021 – COVID-19 pandemic
- A panel of scientists that advises the British government announces that a variant first discovered in the United Kingdom is 30% more deadly than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus. (Forbes)
Portals