What Science Is and How It Works

by Derry, Gregory Neil

• ISBN13: 9780691095509
• ISBN10: 0691095507
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-03-04
• Publisher: Princeton University Pres

Summary

How does a scientist go about solving problems? How do scientific discoveries happen? Why are cold fusion and parapsychology different from mainstream science? What is a scientific worldview? In this lively and wide-ranging book, Gregory Derry talks about these and other questions as he introduces the reader to the process of scientific thinking. From the discovery of X rays and semiconductors to the argument for continental drift to the invention of the smallpox vaccine, scientific work has proceeded through honest observation, critical reasoning, and sometimes just plain luck. Derry starts out with historical examples, leading readers through the events, experiments, blind alleys, and thoughts of scientists in the midst of discovery and invention. Readers at all levels will come away with an enriched appreciation of how science operates and how it connects with our daily lives. An especially valuable feature of this book is the actual demonstration of scientific reasoning. Derry shows how scientists use a small number of powerful yet simple methods--symmetry, scaling, linearity, and feedback, for example--to construct realistic models that describe a number of diverse real-life problems, such as drug uptake in the body, the inner workings of atoms, and the laws of heredity. Science involves a particular way of thinking about the world, and Derry shows the reader that a scientific viewpoint can benefit most personal philosophies and fields of study. With an eye to both the power and limits of science, he explores the relationships between science and topics such as religion, ethics, and philosophy. By tackling the subject of science from all angles, including the nuts and bolts of the trade as well as its place in the overall scheme of life, the book provides a perfect place to start thinking like a scientist.

Author Biography

Gregory N. Derry teaches physics at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland, where he is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the Physics Department. Having published widely in journals, he maintains an active research program in experimental surface physics and pursues such interests as the history and philosophy of science and the science/society interface.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Prologue What Is Science?	3	(6)
PART I. EXPLORING THE FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE: HOW NEW DISCOVERIES ARE MADE IN THE SCIENCES	9	(58)
A Bird's Eye View: The Many Routes to Scientific Discovery	11	(15)
Nature's Jigsaw: Looking for Patterns As a Key to Discovery	26	(9)
New Vistas: Expanding Our World with Instrumentation	35	(7)
Close, But No Cigar: Discrepancies As a Trigger to Discovery	42	(10)
Ingredients for a Revolution: Thematic Imagination, Precise Measurements, and the Motions of the Planets	52	(15)
PART II. MENTAL TACTICS: SOME DISTINCTIVELY SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES TO THE WORLD	67	(56)
A Universe In a Bottle: Models, Modeling, and Successive Approximation	69	(20)
Thinking Straight: Evidence, Reason, and Critical Evaluation	89	(18)
The Numbers Game: Uses of Quantitative Reasoning	107	(16)
PART III. LARGER QUESTIONS: THE CONTEXT OF SCIENCE	123	(92)
Ultimate Questions: Science and Religion	125	(8)
More Practical Questions: Science and Society	133	(12)
Difficult and Important Questions: Science, Values, and Ethics	145	(13)
Questions of Authenticity: Science, Pseudoscience, and How to Tell the Difference	158	(16)
Contentious Questions: The Shadowy Borderlands of Science	174	(15)
Very Abstract Questions: The Philosophy of Science	189	(18)
Questions of Legitimacy: The Postmodern Critique of Science	207	(8)
PART IV. COMMON GROUND: SOME UNIFYING CONCEPTS IN THE SCIENCES	215	(88)
Fleas and Giants: Some Fascinating Insights about Area, Volume, and Size	217	(13)
The Edge of the Abyss: Order and Disorder in the Universe	230	(22)
Riding Blake's Tiger: Symmetry in Science, Art, and Mathematics	252	(22)
The Straight and Narrow: Linear Dependence in the Sciences	274	(11)
The Limits of the Possible: Exponential Growth and Decay	285	(10)
In the Loop: Feedback, Homeostasis, and Cybernetics	295	(8)
Epilogue So, What Is Science?	303	(2)
Index	305