As a fan of the television program Mythbusters, this interesting perspective on science interested me greatly. The show hosts tested the validity of rumors, myths, movie scenes, Internet videos, etc. mostly using science. And we all know the importance of science. The Scholarly Kitchen brought this interesting subject to our attention in their article, “Science Is A Process.”
Science seems to be under scrutiny more now than ever in history, possibly even back when Egyptians and Babylonians in 2000BC, the first people to experiment with science, were applying their skills in a practical manner, without considering the theory of the processes involved.
One of the show’s hosts, Adam Savage, speaks to the common accusation of something having “no basis in science”. He believes this is meaningless, as science is not a compendium of knowledge, but rather a process we can use to help understand the truth.
In the 1500-1600s, alchemists had to avoid accusations of witchcraft so they devised a system of classification which divided magic into two categories, light and dark, good and evil. Because of the whims of different monarchs, the popularity of alchemy and other magically-based ‘sciences’ fell. The new physical sciences were gaining impetus with the noble classes. These sciences were based upon the theories of alchemy, but discarded the concepts of magic in favor of reason and logic. They eventually led to what are known today as physics and chemistry.
It is good to remember the origins of science to fight new challenges.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
