1. Week 11: Natural Science
AIO: Evolution
PP: Charles Darwin, Copernicus
Special audio notes on:
Intelligence Squared Debate:
―Religion and Science are incompatible‖
Ted Talk: Ben Goldacre, ―Bad Science‖
• Readings:
1. 153-157
2. 158-164
3. 165-170
4. 171-176
5. 177-182
6. 183-189

2. Symphony of Science

3. Week 11: Natural Science
AIO: Evolution
PP: Charles Darwin, Copernicus
Special audio notes on:
Intelligence Squared Debate:
―Religion and Science are incompatible‖
Ted Talk: Ben Goldacre, ―Bad Science‖
• Readings:
1. 153-157
2. 158-164
3. 165-170
4. 171-176
5. 177-182
6. 183-189

4. 3 Ideas for the Week
1. Scientific knowing is an evolving system that limits
uncertainty through observation, experimentation, and
inductive/deductive reasoning.
2. Science as a language, ethos, and community reveals
innate features of human identity and processing.
3. Scientific objectivity and cultural diversity, particularly
religious knowing, are often at odds for various reasons.
Why?

6. • The most beautiful thing we can
experience is the mysterious. It is the
source of all true art and science.
– Who said this?

8. What is Science?
• From the following quotes, what 5 ideas emerge concerning
what Science actually is? Construct a single sentence def.
1. Real science is a revision in progress, always. It proceeds in fits and
starts of ignorance. -Stuart Firestein
2. Science does not purvey absolute truth, science is a mechanism. It’s
a way of trying to improve your knowledge of nature, it’s a system for
testing your thoughts against the universe and seeing whether they
match. – Isaac Asimov
3. Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of
knowledge. – Carl Sagan
4. One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured
against reality, is primitive and childlike — and yet it is the most
precious thing we have. –Hans Muhsam
5. All of science is uncertain and subject to revision. The glory of science
is to imagine more than we can prove. - Freeman Dyson
6. One never notices what has been done; one can only see what
remains to be done… - Marie Curie
7. Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the
danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers of the
preceding generation. – Richard Feynman

9. We live in a society exquisitely dependent
on science and technology, in which
hardly anyone knows anything about
science and technology.
-Carl Sagan

12. ―Modern‖ Knowledge
• What types of knowing
exist in the modern world
without science?
• How might different
portraits and constraints
of Science change our
views of the world?
• Is all Science ―progress‖?
• How much of our
understanding of Science
is a reliance and
assumption of workability
(pragmatic) rather than
true ―knowing‖?

13. ―Types‖ of Science?
• Natural Sciences:
– Space science
– Earth Science
– Life Science
– Chemistry
– Physics
• List 10 sub-categories in
your notes

14. Science and TOK Knower
• Science is a human
activity
– Involves different
activies including
thinking, observing
and communicating
– Reason and
Emotion; Sense
perception;
Language; Reason

15. Scientific Paradigm(s)
• A paradigm is a set of
practices that define
a scientific discipline
at any particular
period of time
• A thought pattern in
an area of
knowledge
• Underline the number
of different
―paradigms‖
mentioned today.

16. Scientific Method
• From Aristotle to
today, humans have
sought a pattern to our
world encounters
• Developed alonside
architecture, philosoph
y and history
• Roger Bacon (13th
century) and the
repeating cycle.
• Karl Popper (20th c.)
and critical rationalism.

19. The Bedrock: Observation
• Ways of Knowing:
– Put order from most to
least important
regarding
―observation‖
• Sense
perception, emotion, r
eason, and intuition
• Historical:
– How has our
understanding, our
ability, and our
limitations of
observation in science
developed over time?

20. Quite so! You have not observed. And
yet you have seen. That is just my point.
Now, I know that there are seventeen
steps, because I have both seen and
observed.

21. Activity: Double-Slit Experiment

22. Hypothesis
• Order the following to tell the ―correct‖
story.
1. I had made a mistake…
2. It seems to me much better…if you admit
in print that you were wrong
3. The universe could have started out in a
smooth and ordered…or lumpy and
disordered state.
4. Neither of these possibilities agrees with
what we observe…
5. The universe would…become lumpy and
disordered as time went on
6. One has to use a quantum theory of
gravity…
7. Some people never admit they are
wrong…
• How is ―Hypothesizing‖ unique?
Consider in relation to other language,
such as ―prediction‖, ―Guessing‖,
―Intuition‖, ―Knowledge‖.

23. Experiment
• Have you ever done
an ―experiment‖?
Describe your last
experiment and what
new knowledge was
gained.
• What are some of the
purposes of
Experiments?
• Does all natural
science require
―experiments‖?

24. Science Aesthetic
• How might serendipity
and creativity relate to
natural
discoveries, research
problems, or even
experimental solutions?
• Is this ―intuition‖ a valid
source of scientific
knowing?
• How is this similar and
different than ―science
for science sake‖ we
often hear criticized in
society?

25. Serendipity as Science?
• Hofmann and LSD
• Fleming and penicillin
• Bequerel and
radioactivity
• Roentgen and X-rays
• Kekule and benzene
• Leonardo
• Frank Dyson
• Archimdedes
• Damadian and Carr
with the MRI

26. It seemed so simple and obvious. I
don’t think it took a lot of insight as
much as naïveté
-Dudley Hershbach,
Nobel Prize Winner

27. Falsification and Repeatability
• From previous discussions, I
offered the following
theory of Knowledge as
―knowledge is just as much
about learning new things
as _________‖
– How does this interact with
the scientific understanding
of ―falsification‖?
• What type of certainty can
science afford knowing its
methodological/natural
constraints?

28. Fill in the Blanks
• The A model of Science
does not prove anything.
One counter-example will
B the hypothesis.
Thus, scientists should
make their theories C.
Science should proceed
through a series of D and
E. Scientists should adopt
a F attitude called G.
• Word Bank: conjectures;
critical; disprove;
falsificationism; inductivist;
refutations; testable.

29. History of Science
• What anthropic
principles are involved
with the formation of
science?
• What fields of science
have persisted since
the beginning of
human thought?
– List 5

30. History
• Metallurgy
• Medicine
• Greeks and Theory
• Modern Science
• Quantum
uncertainty and
relativism

31. Scientific Revolution (16-18th c.)
• How does this time
period differ from the
gradual evolution of
scientific thought in
the past?
• What are some
factors that
contribute to the
scientific revolution.
– research 1 to share
next week.

32. Scientific Thought Ordering
• Put in the right order. What does
the development of scientific
thought over time reveal?
• Put these statements in order:
1. Robert hook Showed that plants
are made of compartments
2. They remind him of monks’ ―cells‖
3. Robert Brown observed and
named the ―nucleus‖
4. In the 17th century, most scientists
believed that life arose by
spontaneous generation from
dead matter.
5. Robert Remak first described the
division of cells to make new ones

33. The Evolution and Application of Theory
• Paradigms shift when:
– Too many ―anamolies‖
in the old make a new
model more useful
– Can clarify, not
remake, the old
paradigm
– Can yield greater
clarity, potential and
progress for future
knowing.

34. Activity: Brain Gym Exercises

35. ―Bad Science‖ Quiz
• Eating olive oil reduces skin wrinkles
• Eating fresh, leafy greens will help
oxygenate the blood because of the
chlorophyll.
• Associations have been shown between
Autism and vaccination dosages.
• Geneticists have identified the gay gene.
• Diet coke causes obesity and cancer
• Cell phones have been shown to cause
cancer in certain trials
• All newer developed drugs are better than
the older ones.
• Eating Fish makes you smarter
• 90% of patients receiving chemotherapy for
cancer die within months of starting treatment
• 65% of those with autism are left handed
• You don’t sneeze when you sleep

36. Pseudo-Science
• Discussion: What
are some reasons
for fake science?
How does it interact
with Knowledge
Issues from TOK?

38. Science as Community
• What ―external pressures‖
exist in modern science?
How does this affect
research and knowing?
• What types of Scientific
Misconduct might there
be?
• ―Publish or perish‖ is a
growing phenomena in
academia. What are some
advantages and
disadvantages?
• What types of scientific
careers are there? How
might it change the
―community‖?

39. Scientific Ethics: Necessary?

40. Science and Reason

41. Language of Science

42. Science and Culture

43. Science and Politics

44. Science and Religion