Chemistry Chapter 1 !V A Science for All Seasons 1.1 Science and Technology: The Roots of Knowledge Chemistry is a science, but what is science? Let!|s examine the roots of science. Our study of the material universe has two facts: the technological (or factual) and the philosophical (or theoretical).
Technology arose long before science, having its origins in antiquity. The ancients used fire to bring about chemical changes. For example, they cooked food, baked pottery, and smelted ores to produce metals such as copper. They made beer and wine by fermentation, and obtained dyes and drugs from plant materials.
These things!Xand many others!Xwere accomplished without an understanding of the scientific principles involved. The Greek philosophers, about 2500 years ago, ere perhaps the first to formulate theories explaining the behavior of matter. They generally did not test their theories by experimentation, however. Nevertheless, their view of nature!Xattributed mainly to Aristotle!Xdominated natural philosophy for 2000 years. The experimental roots of chemistry are planted in alchemy, a mystical chemistry that flourished in Europe during the Middle Ages, about C.E. 500 to 1500. Modern chemists inherited from the alchemists an abiding interest in human health and the quality of life. Alchemists not only searched for a philosophers!| stone that would turn cheaper metals into gold, but also sought an elixir that would confer immortality on those exposed to it.
Alchemists never achieved these goals, but they discovered many new chemical substances and perfected techniques such as distillation and extraction that are still used today. Technology also developed rapidly during the Middle Ages in Europe, in spite of the generally nonproductive Aristotelian philosophy that prevailed. The beginnings of modern science were more recent, however, coming with the emergence of the experimental method. What we now call science grew out of natural philosophy!Xthat is, out of philosophical speculation about nature. Science had its true beginnings in the seventeenth century, when astronomers, physicists, and physiologists began to rely on experimentation. 1.2 The Baconian Dream and the Carsonian Nightmare Francis Bacon was a philosopher who practiced law and served as a judge. Although not a scientist, he was very interested in science and argued that it should be experimental.
The Essay on Forensic Science Chemistry
Forensic chemistry is becoming an increasingly popular topic. It is being used quite often in the real world with police investigations, cases, and is also being magnified in television shows including Forensic Files, CSI, and Bones (What is Forensic Chemistry?). Forensic chemistry is important because without it we wouldn’t know the outcome of a crime. The forensic chemist’s job is to examine ...
It was his dream that science could solve the world!|s problems and enrich human life with new inventions, thereby increasing happiness and prosperity. By the middle of the twentieth century, science and technology appeared to have made the Baconian dream come true. Many dread diseases, such as smallpox, polio, and plague, had been virtually eliminated. The use of fertilizers, pesticides, and scientific animal breeding had increased and enriched our food supply. New materials and communication nearly instantaneous. In addition, nuclear energy seemed to promise unlimited power for our every need. Science and technology had done much toward creating our !SSmodern!” world.
The Baconian dream has lost much of its luster in recent decades. People have learned that the products of science are not an unmitigated good. Some people have predicted that science might bring not wealth and happiness, but death and destruction. Perhaps most noteworthy among these critics of modern technology was Rachel Carson, a biologist. Her poetic and polemic book Silent Spring was published in 1962. The book!|s main theme is that through our use of chemicals to control insects, we are threatening the destruction of all life, including ourselves. People in the pesticide industry (and their allies) roundly denounced Carson as a !SSpropagandist,!” while other scientists rallied to her support.
The Essay on Is It Reasonable To Expect People To Believe In Miracles In A Modern Scientific World
The idea of miracles came under attack in the eighteenth century when science began to reveal a universe which seemed to follow fixed laws. This left little room for the supernatural or for the events, which supposedly transcended or even contradicted the laws of nature. The term miracle is well defined by C.S. Lewis when he said a miracle is an interference with nature by a supernatural power. In ...
By the late 1960s, however, we had experienced massive fish kills, that threatened extinction of several species of birds, and the disappearance of fish from rivers, lakes, and areas of the ocean that had long been productive. Most scientists had moved into Carson!|s camp. Popular support for Carson!|s views was overwhelming. Carson was not the first prophet of doom. In 1798 Thomas Malthus, in his !SSEssay upon the Principles of Population,!” had predicted that the rapid increase in world population would outpace the increase in food supply and result in widespread famine. During the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, however, technological developments enabled food production to keep up with population growth, at least in developed countries.
Today the picture has changed. In spite of serious efforts at birth control over the past few decades, population growth threatens to over take even the most optimistic projections of food production. Some scientists project a dismal future for our world; others confidently predict that science and technology, properly applied, will save us from disaster. 1.3 Science: Testable, Reproducible, Explanatory, Predictive, and Tentative What is science? If scientists disagree about what is and what will be, is science merely a guessing game in which one guess is as good as another? Science is difficult to define precisely, but we will try to describe it. Scientific Hypotheses Science is an accumulation of knowledge about nature and our physical world, based on observations. By making careful observations, scientists collect data. Data reported by scientist must also be observable by other scientists; it must be reproducible. Scientists develop hypotheses (guesses) to try to explain the observed data, and they test these hypotheses by designing and performing experiments.
This is main thing that distinguishes science from the arts and humanities: The tenets of science are testable. In the humanities, people often still argue about some of the same questions that were being debated thousands of years ago: What is truth? What is beauty? However, experiments can be devised to answer most scientific questions. Ideas can be tested and thereby either verified or rejected. As a result, scientists have established a firm foundation of knowledge so that each new generation can build on the past. Scientific Laws Large amounts of scientific data can sometimes be summarized in brief statements called scientific laws. For example, Robert Boyle (1627-1691), an Englishman, conducted many experiments on gases.
The Essay on Scientific Method and Experiment
A) The scientific method consists of six different steps. The first step is to state the problem. Then you must gather information about your topic that you have chosen. Once you gathered your information you form an educated guess called a hypothesis. Then once you have drawn a conclusion you perform an experiment. Then during your experiment you should analyze the data. After you analyze you ...
In each experiment, he found the volume of the gas to decrease when the pressure applied to the gas was increased. Many scientific laws can be.
