What about anthropology? Though I'm sure many people would take issue with you classifying philosophy as a science (not to mention sociology).fates_puppet13 said:
Poll: Is Biology A Science?
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well i can tell you this: your girl pretty much doesn't understand what science is. and for taxonomy, it counts pretty much as variables in equasions in physics. Biology is definetely a science, and is pretty much as fundamental as physics (not ecology of course)
Biology is a science, math is not a science, at all. Math is just....math. and psychology and sociology are social sciences which I consider different then normal sciencessimilar.squirrel said:
lol wut
Biology is one of the hardest sciences in the entire pantheon of science. Saying it's not because you like another field better is the type of retarded stuff students from different science departments rag each other about at lunch.
Biology is one of the hardest sciences in the entire pantheon of science. Saying it's not because you like another field better is the type of retarded stuff students from different science departments rag each other about at lunch.
My thoughts are not very nice, but I will try. Psychology and sociology, I can almost see being argued, although they are still conducted with scientific method and still produce repeatable quantitative results, so I cal them sciences, but I can see the argument.similar.squirrel said:
However, chemistry, biology, ect, are very much true sciences and cannot be discounted.
Yes, they are based on physics, but you can study them in depth without studying the physics they are based on. Thats why people study these things instead of just studying physics.
Also, Math is not a science. There is no scientific discovery, or scientific method. Math is a very important language for science, but in and of itself, it is not a science because it has no inherent connection to the world around us and science is a study of the world around us. You need math to do any kind of advanced science, but mathematics can be used with completely imaginary scenarios and numbers, it has no inherent connection to the real world, so it isn't a science.
About ten hours ago... you can blame a certain person in Brighton, UK for whom a penny just dropped with regard to my labcoat of pure awesome. -_-similar.squirrel said:
You're the snappy entomologist, right? I was actually hoping to get in touch with somebody scientific. Had a great idea today..SckizoBoy said:
'Snappy entomologist'? That's a new one... hmmm... I'll take it as a compliment.similar.squirrel said:
Well... the 'snap' ain't here at the moment. *sigh*
'Snappy' in the well-dressed sense. What happened to the 'snap', though?SckizoBoy said:'Snappy entomologist'? That's a new one... hmmm... I'll take it as a compliment.similar.squirrel said:
Well... the 'snap' ain't here at the moment. *sigh*
Oh, you meant 'snappy' as in my labcoat? Thought you meant the style of my posts... (if there was any). Never mind...similar.squirrel said:'Snappy' in the well-dressed sense. What happened to the 'snap', though?SckizoBoy said:'Snappy entomologist'? That's a new one... hmmm... I'll take it as a compliment.
Well... the 'snap' ain't here at the moment. *sigh*
Though, I don't think a labcoat like mine can ever be classed as 'snappy', so I wonder: how do you know how I dress? ... you spying on me?
Teensy little cameras embedded in drosophilae. You track their genes, they track your jeans.SckizoBoy said:Oh, you meant 'snappy' as in my labcoat? Thought you meant the style of my posts... (if there was any). Never mind...similar.squirrel said:'Snappy' in the well-dressed sense. What happened to the 'snap', though?SckizoBoy said:'Snappy entomologist'? That's a new one... hmmm... I'll take it as a compliment.
Well... the 'snap' ain't here at the moment. *sigh*
Though, I don't think a labcoat like mine can ever be classed as 'snappy', so I wonder: how do you know how I dress? ... you spying on me?
Hoho! I knew it... though I have foiled your plans, for I have the ultimate defence: robber flies! You'll never get anywhere near me *sneer* *sneer*similar.squirrel said:
I've always seen Biology as a science (and I still do) but I will point out that you can read Biology as a BA which as far as I'm aware would suggest that there are enough aspects of Biology that are more humanitarian than scientific to fill a whole degree course.
I missed this dicussion the first time around, and I want my say. Just so we know where am coming from, I am a behavioural ecologist investigating the meachanisms that determine host-choice decisions in parasitoid Hymenoptera. Ecology is a science, unfortunately the further away you get from Maths the less repeatable your experiments are; there is more variation and the same phenomena are less likely to occur twice. In a physics experiment everyone will observe the same thing, in a chemistry one most of the people will observe the same thing, and in a biology experiment a lower proportion of people will observethe same thing. This has nothing to do the science being soft and purely to do with the number of factors involved in the observation.GeorgW said:
However, in ecology, unlike maths for example, what we study is highly observeable. And we can repeat our experiments until we discern which phenomena is the most likely to occur and what factors result in the different variations. Ecology is the culmination of this with most experiments taking years worth of data, as is similar for medicine, sociology or anthropology; while chemistry and physics have much faster turn-overs as they have less factors to consider and the time scale that their observations occur on at much shorter.
OT: One of my colleages, a mathetician working in the evolution department, is in fact using biological knowledge as both an art and a science. He is using mathematics, combined with the stochastic behaviour of bacteria (yes, bacteria behave), to predict and control fractal patterns in colonial expansion. He is then using the fractal patterns, and photos thereof, as part of his art portfolio.
The title of a degree has little bearing on things, I don't think, since at Oxbridge, everything studied at undergraduate level is awarded as a BA (except medicine). And at several institutions (even though no-one will deny it is a science) chemistry degrees are awarded as B/MChem instead of BSc/MSci which is just... odd.ashiba27 said:
