Poll: Is Biology A Science?
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Biology is science just like physics, because the scientists who work in the field subject their research to the same standards as every other scientific field. The follow the scientific method and subject their research to peer review. It may not use math the same way physics and chemistry do, but biologists make testable and repeatable claims just like them.
Biology uses the scientific method just as any other science does. You get some information, you try to explain it (hypothesis), you gather more information through experimentation to see if your hypothesis is correct, you continue to do this until you have gathered enough evidence and eliminated as many dead-ends as possible to form a theory.
At any point in this process it is encouraged that others challenge you, it is also encouraged for them to attempt to recreate your own experiments (and devise their own) in order to see if your assumptions are correct. This will result in more data which will go on to strengthen our understanding of whatever is being studied.
It's kind of like trying to figure out how someone was murdered, you only have the evidence to go on, so you do as much as you can with the evidence you have and attempt to gather more information which should lead to more evidence which will eventually lead you to knowing exactly how someone died and therefore mean you can find the killer and convict them.
In the terms of biology, this information is crucial for us to protect endangered species or understand disease. It is necessary for us to find new cures to various illnesses, but a separate branch of biology can also figure out the behaviour patterns and ecology of certain species so we know enough about them to understand why their species is in decline and therefore figure out a method of preventing it.
Whether you want to call it a science or not, you cannot deny its importance.
At any point in this process it is encouraged that others challenge you, it is also encouraged for them to attempt to recreate your own experiments (and devise their own) in order to see if your assumptions are correct. This will result in more data which will go on to strengthen our understanding of whatever is being studied.
It's kind of like trying to figure out how someone was murdered, you only have the evidence to go on, so you do as much as you can with the evidence you have and attempt to gather more information which should lead to more evidence which will eventually lead you to knowing exactly how someone died and therefore mean you can find the killer and convict them.
In the terms of biology, this information is crucial for us to protect endangered species or understand disease. It is necessary for us to find new cures to various illnesses, but a separate branch of biology can also figure out the behaviour patterns and ecology of certain species so we know enough about them to understand why their species is in decline and therefore figure out a method of preventing it.
Whether you want to call it a science or not, you cannot deny its importance.
I'm a scientist, and I wear a cowboy hat, and carry a compass and a hammer. Screw lab coats!Rascarin said:
Well your girlfriend is wrong. Biology uses the scientific method, therefore it's a science. Same with Psychology, same with the other so called 'not proper sciences'.similar.squirrel said:
Well, you could be like this guy:similar.squirrel said:Tell me, what kind of career could I expect to get with an entomology degree?SckizoBoy said:Your GF is joking about I'm sure... hell, I used to be like that as well (well, when I was 12) until I discovered the joys of studying creepy-crawlies (entomologist). Anyway, taken literally 'science' is just Latin for 'knowledge'. Meh...
Still, these days, science is so interdisciplinary that physics is applied to biological studies in a lot of cases (e.g. single molecule spectroscopy, TEM and so on... god that shit bores me...)
BTW, *this* is my lab coat:Rascarin said:
And work for this incredibly sexy woman:
And sleep with this other incredibly sexy woman:
So there's that.
the basic principle of science is the methodology involved; hypothesis, experiment, informed argument etc. any subject that uses this is a science by a historical definition.
biology is not so different from physics or chemistry, since it's based on them! It's just a bit more complicated is all. ecology is a bit of field application, and taxonomy is simply naming things in an ordered manner. i think those (but especially taxonomy!) are bad examples. evolution might be a good one; cause and effect is so wonderfully physical.
biology is not so different from physics or chemistry, since it's based on them! It's just a bit more complicated is all. ecology is a bit of field application, and taxonomy is simply naming things in an ordered manner. i think those (but especially taxonomy!) are bad examples. evolution might be a good one; cause and effect is so wonderfully physical.
Yeh of course Biology is a science. Physics is better (that is to say (in my opinion) more interesting) but it's still a science.
Biology is a science, as is physics and chemistry.
In my opinion, psychology is a science, but only in the loosest definition of the term, since it relies so much on subjectivism.
In my opinion, psychology is a science, but only in the loosest definition of the term, since it relies so much on subjectivism.
Totally agree. What makes a subject a science is the methodology involved in the process rather than the actions performed. Biology is a science; a soul crushingly excruciating one, but a science nonetheless.kromify said:
Can you run repeatable and observable experiments to explain phenomena? Can you combine present and past experimental results in larger theories? Yes, biology is a science. Still hate it though, living things are messy and disgusting...
Anyway, the XKCD comic was probably way over her head. The purity asserted in it was something else entirely, something akin to the reverse order of discovery, and on what other fields a branch of science is based upon. For example, us chemists are nothing more than scientists who apply the principles of physics to elements, atoms, molecules, polymers, etc, while the physicists find applications to equations solved centuries ago by mathematicians. A much better example would be quantum mechanics, which wasn't "discovered" until the early 1900s. Only that wasn't true in the slightest. The necessary equations had been solved starting in the 1700s, long before anything was known of the wave/particle nature of tiny things. Again, physics merely found an application for these equations, which us chemists then used in large scale computations for various properties of compounds, which the bio people then get to use for whatever the hell it is they're doing.
That said, sociology is just glorified statistics, and psychology and voodoo are interchangeable terms. (just bitter cuz the liberal arts people get so much money)
Anyway, the XKCD comic was probably way over her head. The purity asserted in it was something else entirely, something akin to the reverse order of discovery, and on what other fields a branch of science is based upon. For example, us chemists are nothing more than scientists who apply the principles of physics to elements, atoms, molecules, polymers, etc, while the physicists find applications to equations solved centuries ago by mathematicians. A much better example would be quantum mechanics, which wasn't "discovered" until the early 1900s. Only that wasn't true in the slightest. The necessary equations had been solved starting in the 1700s, long before anything was known of the wave/particle nature of tiny things. Again, physics merely found an application for these equations, which us chemists then used in large scale computations for various properties of compounds, which the bio people then get to use for whatever the hell it is they're doing.
That said, sociology is just glorified statistics, and psychology and voodoo are interchangeable terms. (just bitter cuz the liberal arts people get so much money)
