2018-09367 STS-1

History of Science

The history of Science has come a long way from the self-conscious inquiry of the
"natural philosophers" to the synthesis of influences from different countries that improved
world system, discovering causes and medication to health issues, integrating ideas that explain
natural occurrences, industrial revolution, the internet, to establishing concepts that give
answers and solutions to about the universe and human life. The discoveries that the scientists,
philosophers, educated and other known people have made allowed us to know and experience
the things we have now. They first developed the abstract knowledge we know of today.

Science starts with inquiry—asking and developing that will help us arrive at the idea
of what is believed to be true. It is not just about seeking for answers to the questions we have
in mind, but also to develop inquiries that will open us to more learnings and discoveries that
will uncover everything about life and the physical world. A single question may lead to more
questions but do we get to arrive at answers that we desire?

In this paper, I'd like to tackle the five questions often asked by the natural philosophers.
First, what is stuff? There are a lot of answers to this question. If we based it on Democritus’
idea of atoms then stuff is something made up of atoms. If it pertains to rock, this means a mass
of stony materials that are placed in different layers depending on their position. This may be
about the cathedrals, institution, and architectural infrastructures. Science has a wide range of
knowledge that explains almost everything there is to know. It provides a deep understanding
of how things came about—from the people who discovered it to its application in various
fields; how the physical world works, what constitutes it and how it transitioned into how it is
now.

What is life? Biology perhaps would be best to provide explanation on this question.
We know how big the role of biology in all the discoveries about sustainability of life in all
forms. Before Darwin, there was natural history based on the work of Aristotle. He saw living
things as one kind and from this specific idea, biology eventually emerged from the order of
nature, study of marine species, concept of extinction, natural selection, and to everything we
know of today. The extent to which our curiosity and non-stop inquiries can lead to great ideas
is astonishing. They had some ideas about how life changed over time that eventually led to
the discovery of biology that encompasses all living organisms, including their genes, physical
structure and development, selection, chemical processes and interactions, social and
physiological aspects.

Where are we? When are we? The discovery of time, calendar system, maps, electricity,
technologies that can locate anyone’s location can give answers to these questions. The
advancements in these aspects gave rise to present discoveries and things that are yet to be
discovered.
Lastly, how can we agree on what we know? With all of these ideas do we just accept
everything? Science, no matter how much knowledge it provides, still has its limitations. It
provides a unified idea of how things came about, but there are still theories that are disproven
and conflicting ideas of various people. We agree on something backed up of scientific
evidences and proven to be true.

The videos made me question a lot of things that I don’t give much thought about in
ordinary days. The calendar system, for example, is something we make use of everyday but
we don’t give much thought on how it started.

We may not always arrive at the answer that we want to get, but in time it will all makes
sense. Science history tells us that knowledge takes to discover and takes a lot of people’s
synthesized ideas to make sense of everything. It is about examining and scrutinizing even the
littlest detail in order to validate something.

Form all the videos, one thing is common: contentment in one idea is nonexistent. When
one discovered something, one would disprove it or would replicate to for validity. Science
and the knowledge it holds are not fixed. It doesn’t stop unfolding things into organized ideas
and continues to verify or falsify theories that wish to give natural explanation of things.

Science indeed is not a stable idea. It is not just also about turning ignorance to
knowledge- there has to be. It perpetually changes to continue to give answers to a lot of
inquiries about the physical world and improve humanity. It made everything almost possible;
it allowed the things that our ancestors once imagined then turn into reality. Surely, it
contributed to the convenience and progress we experience now. Looking at the larger picture,
along with the innovations it brought about, science has also made drastic destruction to us and
the world we live in. Now, we continue to struggle to solve the problems our old technology
created.