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Definition: Natural |
NaturalAdjective1. In accordance with nature; relating to or concerning nature; "a very natural development"; "our natural environment"; "natural science"; "natural resources"; "natural cliffs"; "natural phenomena". 2. Existing in or produced by nature; not artificial or imitation; "a natural pearl"; "natural gas"; "natural silk"; "natural blonde hair"; "a natural sweetener"; "natural fertilizers". 3. Existing in or in conformity with nature or the observable world; neither supernatural nor magical; "a perfectly natural explanation". 4. (biology) functioning or occurring in a normal way; lacking abnormalities or deficiencies; "it's the natural thing to happen"; "natural immunity"; "a grandparent's natural affection for a grandchild". 5. (music) of a key containing no sharps or flats; "B natural". 6. Unthinking; prompted by (or as if by) instinct; "a cat's natural aversion to water"; "offering to help was as instinctive as breathing". 7. (used especially of commodities) in the natural unprocessed condition; "natural yogurt"; "natural produce"; "raw wool"; "raw sugar"; "bales of rude cotton". 8. Related by blood; not adopted; "natural parent". 9. Being talented through inherited qualities; "a natural leader"; "a born musician"; "an innate talent". 10. : unaffected and natural looking; "a lifelike pose"; "a natural reaction". Noun1. Someone regarded as certain to succeed; "he's a natural for the job". 2. A notation cancelling a previous sharp or flat. 3. (in craps) a first roll of 7 or 11 that immediately wins the stake. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "natural" was first used: sometime around 1250. (references) |
Etymology: Natural \Nat"u*ral\, adjective. [from Old English expression naturel, French naturel, from the Latin expression naturalis, from natura. See Nature.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | NATURAL An integrated 4GL from Software AG, Germany. The menu-driven version is SUPER/NATURAL. Natural 2 is a major upgrade to Natural 1. Version 2.1.7 in the MVS environment (June 1995, also available for Unix). Natural works with DB2 and various other databases, but Natural and Adabas normally go together. There are many products available in the "Natural" family, including SuperNatural, Natural for Windows, Entire Connection (enables up/downloading and interaction with Excel) and Esperant. (1995-11-14). Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. |
Food & Agriculture | Term applied to a table wine which has been made without the addition of any alcohol, sugar or illicit substances. Source: European Union. (references) |
Literature | Natural (A). A born idiot; one on whom education can make no impression. As nature made him, so he remains. A natural child. One not born in lawful wedlock. The Romans called the children of concubines naturales Children according to nature, and not according to law. "Cui pater est populus, pater est sibi nullus omnes; Cui pater est populus not habet ille patrem." Ovid. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Slang in 1811 | NATURAL. A mistress, a child; also an idiot. A natural son or daughter; a love or merry-begotten child, a bastard. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Natural capital refers to the mineral, plant, and animal formations of the Earth's biosphere when viewed as a means of production of oxygen, water filter, erosion preventer, or provider of other natural services. It is one approach to ecosystem valuation, an alternative to the traditional view of all non-human life as passive natural resources, and to the idea of ecological health.In a traditional classical economic analysis of the factors of production, natural capital would usually be classified as "Land" distinct from "Capital" in its original sense The distinction between "Land" and "Capital" was that land is naturally occurring, whereas capital as originally defined referred only to man-made goods. It may however be argued that it is useful to view many natural systems as "Capital" because they can be improved or degraded by the actions of man over time, so that to view them as if their productive capacity is fixed by nature alone is misleading. More importantly, they yield benefits naturally which are harvested by humans, those being nature's services, 17 of which were closely analyzed by Robert Costanza. These benefits are in some ways similar to those realized by owners of infrastructural capital which yields more goods, e.g. a factory which produces automobiles just as an apple tree produces apples.
The term was most closely identified with Herman Daly, Robert Costanza, the Biosphere 2 project, and the Natural Capitalism economic model of Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and Hunter Lovins until recently, when it began to be used by politicians, notably Ralph Nader, Paul Martin Jr, and agencies of the UK government including the London Health Observatory.
Some economists and politicians, including Martin, believe natural capital measures play a key role in money supply and inflation measurements in a modern economy. They point to uneconomic growth and a lack of any direct connection between measuring well-being and such indicators as GDP.
Indicators adopted by UNEP, WCMC and the OECD to measure natural biodiversity use the term in a slightly more specific way. However, all users of the term differentiate natural from man-made manufactured capital or infrastructural capital in some way. It does not appear that the basic principle is controversial, although there is much controversy on ecological health indicators, value of nature's services and Earth itself, consistent methods of ecosystem valuation, biodiversity metrics and methods of audit that might apply to these services, systems and biomes.
Full cost accounting, triple bottom line, measuring well-being and other proposals for accounting reform often include proposals to measure an ecological deficit or natural deficit alongside a social deficit and the well-known financial deficit. It would be hard to measure such a deficit without some agreement on methods of valuating and auditing at least the global forms of natural capital, e.g. value of air, water, soil.
The concept of natural capital implies that the savings rate of an economy is an imperfect measure of what the country is actually saving, because it measure only investment in man-made capital. The World Bank now calculates the genuine savings rate of a country, taking into account the extraction of natural resources and the ecological damage caused by CO2-emissions.
See also
- biomimicry
External links
- Natural Capital indicators for OECD countries
- Global Resource Bank
- Natural Capitalism
- Ecosystem Valuation - US DA
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Natural capital."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A natural disaster is a natural event with catastrophic consequences for living things in the vicinity.Common forms of natural disasters include:
Extreme forms of natural disaster:
- Avalanches
- Earthquakes
- Floods
- Forest fires
- Heat wave
- Hurricanes
- Ice storm
- Landslides
- Tornadoes
- Tsunami
- Volcanic eruptionss
Compare with man-made disasters.
- Impact of a large object with the Earth
- Solar flares
See also: Emergency, Emergency preparedness, Emergency planning, civil defense, disaster relief, Weather disasters, list of disasters
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Natural disaster."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Natural history is the study of the history and processes of living things. It history is defined differently, depending on the source. Although most definitions include botany and zoology, others extend the topic to include paleontology and biochemistry, as well as parts of geology and physics. A person interested in natural history is known as a naturalist.In the Eighteenth and welll into the Nineteenth Century, Natutal History as a term was frequently used to refer to all scientific studies, as opposed to political or ecclesiastical history. As such the subject area would include all aspects of physics, astronomy, archeology, etc. We still see this usage in some institution names, such as the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Natural history."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
1. A natural language is one that evolved along with a culture of human native speakers who use the language for general-purpose communication. Languages like English, American Sign Language and Japanese are natural languages, while languages like Esperanto are called constructed languages, having been deliberately created for a specific purpose.Constructed languages can still have "native" speakers, if children learn it at a young age from parents who have learned the language; there are estimated to be 200-2000 native speakers of Esperanto, for example.
2. Sometimes any language used by human beings (be it naturally evolved like English, or constructed like Esperanto) is considered a "natural" language, while programming languages and data representation languages for computers are classed as artificial. This usage can be seen in the term natural language processing.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Natural language."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A natural number is a non-negative integer: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ... (Zero is sometimes excluded.) These are the first numbers learned by children, and the easiest to understand. Natural numbers have two main purposes: they can be used for counting ("there are 3 apples on the table), or they can be used for ordering ("this is the 3rd largest city in the state"). The deeper properties of the natural numbers, such as the distribution of prime numbers, are studied in number theory.History of natural numbers and the status of zero
Natural numbers were originally invented to count physical objects. Their first systematic study as things in themselves (separated from physical objects) is usually credited to the Greek philosophers Pythagoras and Archimedes. However, independent studies occurred at around the same time in India, China, and Mesoamerica.
Zero is relatively newborn. A zero digit was used in place-value notation as early as 400 BC by the Babylonians. The Olmec and Maya civilization used zero as a separate number as early as 1st century BC, apparently developed independently, but they did not pass it along to anyone outside of Mesoamerica. The modern concept dates to the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta in 628 AD. It took more than five centuries for European mathematicians to accept zero as a number, and even when they did, it was not counted as a natural number.
In the nineteenth century, a set-theoretical definition of the natural numbers was developed. With this definition, it was more convenient to include zero (corresponding to the empty set) in the naturals. Wikipedia follows this convention, as do set theorists, logicians, and computer scientists. Some other mathematicians, mainly number theorists, prefer to follow the old tradition and exclude zero from the natural numbers.
The term whole number is used informally by some authors for an element of the set of integers, the set of non-negative integers, or the set of positive integers.
Notation
Mathematicians use N or (an N in blackboard bold) to refer to the set of all natural numbers. This set is infinite but countable by definition.
W or is sometimes used to refer to the set of whole numbers, by authors who do not identify it with the integers.
Formal definitions
The precise mathematical definition of the natural numbers has not been easy. The Peano postulates state conditions that any successful definition must satisfy:
If zero is excluded from the natural numbers, every 0 in the Peano postulates should be replaced by a 1.
- There is a natural number 0.
- Every natural number a has a successor, denoted by a + 1.
- There is no natural number whose successor is 0.
- Distinct natural numbers have distinct successors: if a ≠ b, then a + 1 ≠ b + 1
- If a property is possessed by 0 and also by the successor of every natural number which possesses it, then it is possessed by all natural numbers. (This postulate ensures that the proof technique of mathematical induction is valid.)
A standard construction in set theory is to define each natural number as the set of natural numbers less than it, so that 0 = {}, 1 = {0}, 2 = {0,1}, 3 = {0,1,2}... When you see a natural number used as a set, this is typically what is meant. Under this definition, there are exactly n elements in the set n and if m is bigger than n, then n is a subset of m.
Properties
One can inductively define an addition on the natural numbers by requiring a + 0 = a and a + (b + 1) = (a + b) + 1. This turns the natural numbers (N, +) into a commutative monoid with neutral element 0, the so-called free monoid with one generator. This monoid satisfies the cancellation property and can therefore be embedded in a group. The smallest group containing the natural numbers is the integers.
Analogously, a multiplication * can be defined via a * 0 = 0 and a * (b + 1) = ab + a. This turns (N, *) into a commutative monoid; addition and multiplication are compatible which is expressed in the distribution law: a * (b + c) = ab + ac.
Furthermore, one defines a total order on the natural numbers by writing a ≤ b if and only if there exists another natural number c with a + c = b. This order is compatible with the arithmetical operations in the following sense: if a, b and c are natural numbers and a <= b, then a + c ≤ b + c and ac ≤ bc. An important property of the natural numbers is that they are well-ordered: every non-empty set of natural numbers has a smallest element.
While it is in general not possible to divide one natural number by another and get a natural number as result, the procedure of division with remainder is available as a substitute: For any two natural numbers a and b with b ≠ 0 we can find natural numbers q and r such that
The number q is called the quotient and r is called the remainder of division of a by b. The numbers q and r are uniquely determined by a and b. This, the quotient-remainder theorem, is key to several other properties (divisibility), algorithms (such as the Euclidean algorithm), and ideas in number theory.
- a = bq + r and r < b
Generalizations
Two generalizations of natural numbers arise from the two uses: ordinal numbers are used to describe the position of an element in a ordered sequence and cardinal numbers are used to specify the size of a given set.
For finite sequences or finite sets, both of these are of course the same as the natural numbers.
zh-cn:自然数 zh-tw:自然數Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Natural number."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The natural sciences study the physical, nonhuman aspects of the world. As a group, the natural sciences are distinguished from the social sciences, on the one hand, as well as from the arts and humanities on the other. Natural sciences generally attempts to explain the workings of the world via natural processes rather than divine processes.The term natural science is also used to differentiate between "science" as a discipline following the scientific method, and "science" as a field of knowledge generally, e.g. computer science or even "the science of theology".
In some contexts, the natural sciences are definied differently (sometimes called the biological sciences, involved in biological processes), and are distinguished from the physical sciences (involved in the physical and chemical laws underlying the universe).
Natural sciences
- Astronomy
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Earth science
- Physics
- Electrical engineering
External links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Natural science."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In category theory, an abstract branch of mathematics, a natural transformation provides a way of transforming one functor into another while respecting the internal structure, i.e. the composition of morphisms, of the categories involved. Hence, a natural transformation can be considered to be a morphism of functors. Indeed this intuition can be formalized to define a so called functor category. Natural transformations are, after categories and functors, one of the most basic notions of categorical algebra and consequently appear in the majority of its applications.
Definition
If F and G are (covariant) functors between the categories C and D, then a natural transformation η from F to G associates to every object X in C a morphism ηX : F(X) -> G(X) in D, such that for every morphism f : X -> Y in C we have ηY o F(f) = G(f) o ηX. This equation can conveniently be expressed by a commutative diagram.
If, for every object X in C, the morphism ηX is an isomorphism in D, then η is said to be a natural isomorphism (or sometimes natural equivalence). Two functors F and G are called naturally isomorphic if there exists a natural isomorphism from F to G.
Examples
If K is a field, then for every vector space V over K we have a natural" injective linear map V -> V** from he vector space into its double dual. These maps are "natural" in the following sense: the double dual operation is a functor, and the maps form a natural transformation from the identity functor to the double dual functor.
Consider the category Ab of abelian groups and group homomorphisms. For all abelian groups X, Y and Z we have a group isomorphism
These isomorphisms are "natural" in the sense that they define a natural transformation between the two involved functors Abop x Abop x Ab -> Ab.
- Hom(X, Hom(Y, Z)) -> Hom(X
Y, Z).
Yoneda lemma
If X is an object of the category C, then the assignment Y |-> MorC(X, Y) defines a covariant functor FX : C -> Set. This functor is called representable. The natural transformations from a representable functor to an arbitrary functor F : C -> Set are completely known and easy to describe; this is the content of the Yoneda lemma.
Functor categories
If C is any category and I is a small category, we can form the functor category CI having as objects all functors from I to C and as morphisms the natural transformations between those functors. This is especially useful if I arises from a directed graph. For instance, if I is the category of the directed graph * -> *, then CI has as objects the morphisms of C, and a morphism between φ : U -> V and ψ : X -> Y in CI is a pair of morphisms f : U -> X and g : V -> Y in C such that the "square commutes", i.e. ψ f = g φ.
Historical Notes
Saunders Mac Lane, one of the founders of category theory, is said to have remarked, "I didn't invent categories to study functors; I invented them to study natural transformations." Just as the study of groups is not complete without a study of homomorphisms, so the study of categories is not complete without the study of functors. The reason for Mac Lane's comment is that the study of functors is itself not complete without the study of natural transformations.
The context of Mac Lane's remark was the axiomatic theory of homology. Different ways of constructing homology could be shown to coincide: for example in the case of a simplicial complex the groups defined directly, and those of the singular theory, would be isomorphic. But that in itself stated much less than the existence of a natural transformation of the corresponding homology functors.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Natural transformation."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Nature has two related clusters of meaning:
- Alternative meaning: Nature (journal)
The first meaning is closer to the Latin origin, natura, meaning birth or character. The second meaning was first recorded in English in 1662.
- innate character or essence ("the true nature of jealousy");
- the material world, especially in its essential form, untainted by human influence ("state of nature").
The natural world
In scale, 'nature' includes everything from the universal to the subatomic. This includes all things animal, plant, and mineral; all natural resources and events (hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes). It also includes the behaviour of living animals, and the processes associated with inanimate objects.
Nature versus nurture
In discussions about the relative importance of genetic and environmental influences on development, the nature/nurture dichotomy (see Nature_versus_nurture) is often advanced. Here both meanings of nature seem to apply: on the one hand, the environment is contrasted with the innate character of the individual in these discussions, and on the other, it is generally supposed that this character is determined by the individual's physical nature (e.g. genetic endowment).
The natural and the artificial
Nature is sometimes simply equated with the universe and all its phenomena other than mind, but more often it refers to the material world exclusive of the influence of humans and especially civilization. This presents a difficulty since humans and their civilizations are part of the material universe. The ambiguity of the boundary between the natural and the artificial animates much of art, literature and philosophy, and is closely related to the mind-body problem.
Related concepts
Natural science is the study of natural processes. All sciences deal with the natural.
"Natural philosophy" formerly named the scientific discipline now known as physics.
Natural theology straddles the disciplines of theology and philosophy of religion.
In education and related areas, the contrast "natural/artificial" can appear as " nature/nurture".
For contrasting/varying concepts, see praeternatural, unnatural and supernatural.
History of the Concept of "Nature"
Historically, things natural received short shrift from civilised (read "artificial") society until the 18th century romantics discovered the joys of the sublime and started gushing about "Nature" (as a personified, capitalised demi-god), visiting countrysides and climbing mountains. The romantic soft-spot for the natural world re-manifested itself in the late 20th century in the Green movement.
See also
simple:Nature
- biophilia
- Naturefriends
- Natural units (Planck units)
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Nature."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
simple:ScienceScience (from scientia, Latin for "knowledge") has come to mean a body of knowledge, or a method of study devoted to developing this body of knowledge, concerning the universe gained through methodological observation and experimentation. The scientific method consists of different principles and procedures that are useful in acquiring scientific knowledge. Exactly what constitutes science and scientific methods are subjects studied by the philosophy of science.
Overview
Implicit in science's devotion to acquiring knowledge about the universe is an assumption that there is a reality that exists independent of a mind (or minds) perceiving it. This view, realism, holds that the universe (atoms, animals, gravity, stars, wind, microbes, etc.) exists independent of our observation. Under this view, the (approximate) truth of scientific knowledge is taken at face value.
Some of the findings of science under this view can be quite extraordinary to a non-scientific mind in light of every day common observation. Atomic theory, for example, implies that a granite boulder which appears as heavy, hard, solid, grey, etc. is actually a combination of subatomic particles with none of these properties, moving very rapidly in an area consisting mostly of empty space.
Philosophers sometimes distinguish between the actual reality of things within the universe, which may or may not be fully perceivable by humans, and our perception of things within the universe. Immanuel Kant coined the phrases phenomena (the universe as humans experience it) and noumena (things-in-themselves).
Realism, however, is not necessary to science. Instrumentalism, for example, posits that while entities, such as atoms, help explain and predict data from experiments, these entities do not necessarily exist. This approach is favored by some when it comes to committing to the ontological status of a scientific entity which may seem unobservables in principle.
In contrast to Kant's views (and despite wide acceptance that human perception of phenomena is not necessarily an accurate reflection of the universe as it really is), most scientists assert that it is possible to understand and accurately explain (at least somewhat if not fully) the universe using the scientific method to hone accurate scientific theories and laws.
Scientists point out that while some people criticise the basic ideas of science, it is science alone that has provided information on the mysteries of the atom, the cell, the solar system, and the observable universe. It is science alone that has provided knowledge to develop tens of thousands of technological advances in medicine, engineering, communications and beyond. No other system which claims to compete with science has ever actually succeeded in actually producing useful information about the physical world in which we live.
Previous definitions of the term
Until the Enlightenment, the word "science" (or its Latin cognate) meant any systematic or exact, recorded knowledge (and the word continues to be used in this sense sometimes). "Science" therefore had the same sort of very broad meaning that "philosophy" had at that time.
There was a distinction between, for example, "natural science" and "moral science," which latter included what we now call philosophy, and this mirrored a distinction between "natural philosophy" and "moral philosophy." More recently, "science" has come to be restricted to what used to be called "natural science" or "natural philosophy." Natural science can be further broken down into physical science and biological science. Social science is often included in the field of science as well.
Fields of study are often distinguished in terms of "hard sciences" and "soft sciences," and these terms (at times considered derrogatory) are often synonymous with the terms natural and social science (respectively). Physics, chemistry, biology and geology are all forms of "hard sciences". Studies of anthropology, history, psychology, and sociology are sometimes called "soft sciences." Proponents of this division use the arguments that the "soft sciences" do not use the scientific method, admit anecdotal evidence, or are not mathematical, all adding up to a "lack of rigor" in their methods. Opponents of the division in the sciences counter that the "social sciences" often make systematic statistical studies in strictly controlled environments, or that these conditions are not adhered to by the natural sciences either (for example, behavioral biology relies upon fieldwork in uncontrolled environments, astronomy cannot design experiments, only observe limited conditions).
Mathematics is widely believed to be a science, but it is not. It is more closely related to logic; it is not a science because it makes no attempt to gain empirical knowledge. However, mathematics is the universal language of all sciences.
The term "science" is sometimes pressed into service for new and interdisciplinary fields that make use of scientific methods at least in part, and which in any case aspire to be systematic and careful explorations of their subjects, including computer science, library and information science, and environmental science. Mathematics and computer science reside under "Q" in the Library of Congress classification, along with all else we now call science.
Scientific models, theories and laws
Main article: scientific method
The terms "hypothesis", "model", "theory" and, "law" are often used incorrectly in colloquial speech. Scientists use the term model to mean a proposed account of something, specifically one which can be used to make predictions which can be tested by experiment or observation. Some models become a hypothesis, which refer to a contention that has not (yet) been well supported nor ruled out by experiment. They use theory to mean both the same thing as hypothesis and more established explanations, and law to mean a theory which has been so well confirmed that the probability of being refuted by experiment is very small. Some models are used to help our thinking.
Most non-scientists are unaware that what scientists call "theories" are what most people call "facts". The general public loosely uses the word theory to refer to ideas that have no firm proof or support; in contrast, scientists usually use this word to refer only to ideas that have repeatedly withstood test. Thus, when scientists refer to the theories of biological evolution, electromagnetism, and relativity, they are referring to ideas that have survived considerable experimental testing. But there are exceptions, such as string theory, which seems to be a promising model but as yet has no empirical evidence to give it precedence over competing models.
Especially fruitful theories that have withstood the test of time, and which predict and describe a very wide range of phenomenon, acquire the 'status' of a "law of nature". Most scientists believe that our descriptions of laws of nature are provisional. Theories are always open to revision if new evidence is provided.
Newton's law of gravitation is a famous example of a theory falsified by experiments regarding motions at high speeds and in close proximity to strong gravitational fields. Outside of those conditions, Newton's Laws remain excellent accounts of motion and gravity. Because general relativity accounts for all of the phenomena that Newton's Laws do, and more, General Relativity is regarded as our best account of gravitation, so far.
Mathematics and the scientific method
Science makes extensive use of mathematics. Observing and collecting measurements often requires the use of mathematics; hypothesizing and predicting may require extensive use of mathematics. Mathematical branches often used in science include calculus and statistics. A form of systematic reasoning has been applied to mathematics itself at least since the time of Euclid.
Many people see mathematicians as working scientifically; they regard physical experiments as inessential and argue that proofs figure equivalently in mathematics. Most do not, since mathematics does not require experimental test of its theories and hypotheses. Others observe that mathematics has no experimental tests (that do not involve mathematicians) for any of its results; mathematicians are both the investigators and the theoreticians. See: Eugene Wigner The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics.
R.P. Feynman said "Mathematics is not real, but it feels real. Where is this place?".
Philosophical foundations of the scientific method
One school of thought asserts that the scientific method (and science in general) relies upon basic axioms or "self-evident truths" such as internal consistency and realism. While it is true that many scientists believe these things and do assume them in their everyday work, the method itself does not rely on them: all such assumptions are just part of the hypotheses being tested, and many of them are subject to test as well. For example, one of the "common sense" ideas that scientists believed for a long time is that any measurable property of an object is something that exists in the object before it is measured, and our measurements are merely observations of that pre-existing condition; Quantum mechanics rejects this, because experiments have contradicted it.
Some believe that scientific principles have been "solidly" established, beyond question, and are true. Some scientists themselves may indeed feel that way, having come to rely upon many of the results of science without having done all the experiments themselves; after all, one cannot expect every individual scientist to repeat hundreds of years' worth of experiments. Many scientists even encourage an attitude of skepticism toward claims that contradict the current state of scientific knowledge or some easy extrapolation from it; but that only means such claims must meet a higher burden before being accepted, not that they can never be accepted. In the extreme, some, including some scientists, may believe in this or that scientific principle, or even "science" itself, as a matter of faith in a manner similar to that of religious believers. However, neither science nor scientific method itself rely on faith; all scientific facts (i.e., measurements) and explanations (i.e., hypotheses or theories) are subject to test, and will eventually be rejected as the best available hypothesis when new evidence falsifying them is found. (See more under falsificationism.)
This is the reason that political, religious, or social enforcement of scientific convictions is inherently pernicious. Examples include the Roman Catholic Church's action against Galileo's non-Aristotelian discoveries about the behavior of the planets (they violated some prestigious, and ancient, philosophical speculation the Church had promoted to dogma), and Stalin's support for Lysenko's biological and genetic beliefs (what was wrong with standard genetics in Stalin's view is not clear; Lysenko was either a deliberate con man or incapable of understanding standard genetics in his day).
Goals of science
Despite popular impressions of science, it is not the goal of science to answer all questions, only those that pertain to physical reality. Scientists teach that science does not produce absolute and unquestionable truth. Rather, science consistently tests the currently best hypothesis about some aspect of the physical world, and when necessary revises or replaces it.
Science is not a source of value judgements, though it can certainly speak to matters of ethics and public policy by pointing to the likely consequences of actions. However, science can't tell us which of those consequences to desire or which is 'best'. What one projects from the currently most reasonable scientific hypothesis onto other realms of interest is not a scientific issue, and the scientific method offers no assistance for those who wish to do so. Scientific justification (or refutation) for many things is, nevertheless, often claimed.
Fields of science
The physical and life sciences
- Archaeology
- Biology
- Agricultural science
- Anatomy
- Anthropology
- Astrobiology
- Biochemistry
- Bioinformatics
- Biophysics
- Botany
- Cell biology
- Cladistics
- Cytology
- Developmental biology
- Ecology
- Entomology
- Epidemiology
- Evolution (Evolutionary biology)
- Evolutionary developmental biology ("Evo-devo" or Evolution of Development)
- Freshwater Biology
- Genetics (Population genetics, Genomics, Proteomics)
- Health Science
- Dentistry
- Medicine
- Pharmacology
- Toxicology
- Veterinary science
- Histology
- Immunology
- Marine biology
- Microbiology
- Molecular Biology
- Morphology
- Neuroscience
- Oncology (the study of cancer)
- Ontogeny
- Paleontology
- Pathology
- Phycology (Algology)
- Phylogeny
- Physiology
- Structural biology
- Taxonomy
- Toxicology
- Virology
- Zoology
- Earth Sciences
- Geology
- Meteorology
- Oceanography
- Seismology
- Physics
- Acoustics
- Astronomy
- Astrophysics
- Atomic, Molecular, and Optical physics
- Biophysics
- Computational physics
- Condensed matter physics
- Cryogenics
- Electronics
- Engineering
- Fluid dynamics
- Polymer physics
- Optics
- Materials physics
- Mathematical physics
- Nuclear physics
- Plasma physics
- Particle physics (or High Energy Physics)
- Vehicle dynamics
- Chemistry
- Analytical chemistry
- Biochemistry
- Computational chemistry
- Electrochemistry
- Inorganic chemistry
- Materials Science
- Organic chemistry
- Physical chemistry
- Quantum chemistry
- Spectroscopy
- Stereochemistry
- Thermochemistry
Computer and information sciences
- Computer science
- Cognitive science
- Cognitive systems
- Cybernetics
- Systems theory
Social sciences
- Economics
- Linguistics
- Etymology
- Psychology
- Sociology
Related topics
- Organization and practice of science: International Council of Science (ICSU)
- For an understanding of how these fields came to be: History of Science and Technology .
- See also scientists for catalogs of people active in each of these fields.
See also
Junk science - National Science Foundation (USA) - Pathological science - Protoscience - Pseudoscience - The relationship between religion and science - Science education - Scientific misconductExternal links
- UniSci: Why Science?
- Boris Krupa: Why science?
- Why Study Science?
- Why Science & You
- Why science cannot be democratic
- Why science thrives on criticism
- Is Science Killing the soul? A discussion between Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins
- Richard Dawkins essay: Is Science a Religion?
- Wikibooks - GSCE science textbook
- Alphabetized and ordered list of sciences adapted from the Internet-Encyclopedia article, "Science" Internet-Encyclopedia March 14, 2003
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Science."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| NABIR | English | Natural and Accelerated Bioremediation Research | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: NaturalSynonyms: born(p) (adj), innate(p) (adj), instinctive (adj), lifelike (adj), raw(a) (adj), rude(a) (adj), cancel (n). (additional references) |
| Antonyms: artificial (adj), flat (adj), sharp (adj), supernatural (adj), unnatural (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Artlessness | Adjective: artless, natural, pure, native, confiding, simple, lain, inartificial, untutored, unsophisticated, ingenu, unaffected, naive; sincere, frank; open, open as day; candid, ingenuous, guileless; unsuspicious, honest; innocent; Arcadian; undesigning, straightforward, unreserved, aboveboard; simple-minded, single-minded; frank-hearted, open-hearted, single-hearted, simple-hearted. |
Elegance | Graceful, easy, readable, fluent, flowing, tripping; unaffected, natural, unlabored; mellifluous; euphonious, euphemism, euphemistic; numerose, rhythmical. |
Fool | Noun: fool, idiot, tomfool, wiseacre, simpleton, witling, dizzard, donkey, ass; ninny, ninnyhammer; chowderhead, chucklehead; dolt, booby, Tom Noddy, looby, hoddy-doddy, noddy, nonny, noodle, nizy, owl; goose, goosecap; imbecile; gaby; radoteur, nincompoop, badaud, zany; trifler, babbler; pretty fellow; natural, niais. |
Impulse | Adjective: extemporaneous, impulsive, indeliberate; snap; improvised, improvisate, improvisatory; unpremeditated, unmeditated; improvise; unprompted, unguided; natural, unguarded; spontaneous; (voluntary); instinctive. |
Intrinsicality | Adjective: derived from within, subjective; intrinsic, intrinsical; fundamental, normal; implanted, inherent, essential, natural; innate, inborn, inbred, ingrained, inwrought; coeval with birth, genetous, haematobious, syngenic; radical, incarnate, thoroughbred, hereditary, inherited, immanent; congenital, congenite; connate, running in the blood; ingenerate, ingenite; indigenous; in the grain; Noun: bred in the bone, instinctive; inward, internal; to the manner born; virtual. |
Nonpreparation | Fallow; unsown, untilled; natural, in a state of nature; undressed; in dishabille, en deshabille. |
Normality | Adjective: normal, natural, unexceptional; common, usual (frequency); |
Plainness | Adjective: plain, simple; unornamented, unadorned, unvarnished; homely, homespun; neat; severe, chaste, pure, Saxon; commonplace, matter-of-fact, natural, prosaic. |
Truth | Pure, natural, sound, sterling; unsophisticated, unadulterated, unvarnished, unalloyed, uncolored; in its true colors; pukka. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed (The Matrix; writing credit: Andy Wachowski; Larry Wachowski) 2,3,5,and 7 those are all prime numbers. There is no way this is a natural phenomenon (Contact; writing credit: Carl Sagan;) We've exhausted all of our natural resources (The Blair Witch Project; writing credit: Daniel Myrick; Eduardo Sánchez) It's natural, therefore -correct, even - that they should resent us. How could they do otherwise, when we refused to treat them like fellow human beings (M. Butterfly; writing credit: David Henry Hwang.) We Dwarves are natural sprinters (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; writing credit: Frances Walsh) | |
Lyrics | Oh I'll speak my Southern English just as natural as I please ("My Home's in Alabama"; performing artist: Alabama) She had the whole show and that's a natural fact (We're An American Band; performing artist: Grand Funk Railroad) But I got some natural queens out on the floor ("All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight"; performing artist: Hank Williams Jr.) So natural that you wanna go to war (Alexander's Ragtime Band; performing artist: Louis Armstrong) Holdin' my hand just as natural as can be (Do Wah Diddy Diddy; performing artist: Manfred Mann) | |
Clever | Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough. (references; author: Mark Twain) Synthetic natural gas (references; author: unknown) Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity! (references; author: unknown) Children are natural mimics. They act like their parents in spite of every attempt to teach them good manners. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Natural (2002) A Very Natural Thing (1974) Mr. B Natural (1957) Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman (1940) It's the Natural Thing to Do (1939) | |
Song Titles | Do Anything (performing artist: Natural Selection) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Books |
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Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Six-step sequence of the death of a cancer cell. A cancer cell has migrated through the holes of a matrix coated membrane from the top to the bottom, simulating natural migration of a invading cancer cell between, and sometimes through, the vascular endothelium. Notice the spikes or pseudopodia that are characteristic of an invading cancer cell (1). A buffy coat containing red blood cells, lymphocytes and macrophages is added to the bottom of the membrane. A group of macrophages identify the cancer cell as foreign matter and start to stick to the cancer cell, which still has its spikes (2). Macrophages begin to fuse with, and inject its toxins into, the cancer cell. The cell starts rounding up and loses its spikes (3). As the macrophage cell becomes smooth (4). The cancer cell appears lumpy in the last stage before it dies. These lumps are actually the macrophages fused within the cancer cell (5). The cancer cell then loses its morphology, shrinks up and dies (6). Photo magnification: 1: x12,000; 2: x4,000; 3: x8,000; 4: x26,000; 5: x56,000; 6: x14,000. Credit: Susan Arnold (photographer). |  | Natural history of common acquired nevi. Ordinary moles begin as uniformly tan or brown macules, 1 to 2 mm in diameter (a), expand to a larger macule (b), progress to a pigmented papule that may be minimally (c) or obviously (d) elevated above the surface of the skin, and terminate as a pink or flesh-colored papule (e). These lesions are junctional (a,b), compound (c,d), and dermal (e) nevi, respectively. Note their smooth borders and clear demarcation from the surrounding skin. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |
 | A natural color NASA Hubble Space Telescope view of the full disk of the giant planet ... Credit: NASA. |  | A NASA Hubble Space Telescope "natural color" image of the material surrounding the star Eta ... Credit: NASA. |
 | Natural color image of the Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038/4039) compared with ground-based photo. Credit: NASA. |  | Trailing hemisphere of Europa in "natural" and false color. Credit: NASA. |
 | A natural bridge Sounding South of Russian River. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | A series of caves and natural bridges cut through soft rock. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | Louisiana Department of Natural Resources scientist observing crab catch. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Natural marsh area adjacent to dredged material deposition area - Open area will be colonized by plants and become productive habitat. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Natural Geometrics" by Caron Wiedrick Commentary: "Dragonfly wing." | "Natural Effect 1" by Ricardo Sousa Commentary: "Natural." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Charles Dickens | Regrets are the natural property of gray hairs. |
Elbert Hubbard | The supernatural is the natural not yet understood. |
Francis Bacon | It is natural to die as to be born. |
Johann Friedrich Von Schiller | Nothing leads to good that is not natural. |
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe | The unnatural, that too is natural. |
| To make converts is the natural ambition of everyone. | |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | Judge of your natural character by what you do in dreams. |
St. Thomas Aquinas | Well-ordered self-love is right and natural. |
William Shakespeare | He does it with a better grace, but I do it more natural. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
John Locke | 1690 | This holds in all the laws a man is under, whether natural or civil. (Second Treatise of Government) |
US Constitution | 1791 | Clause 5: No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. (reference) |
Communist Manifesto | 1848 | In countries like France, where the peasants constitute far more than half of the population, it was natural that writers who sided with the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, should use, in their criticism of the bourgeois regime, the standard of the peasant and petty bourgeois, and from the standpoint of these intermediate classes should take up the cudgels for the working class. (reference) |
Treaty of Versailles | 1919 | Natural or manufactured products originating in the Basin in transit over German territory and, similarly, German products in transit over the territory of the Basin shall be free of all customs duties. (reference) |
United Nations | 1948 | The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State. (reference) |
Roe v. Wade | 1973 | Contrary to appellee's contention, the natural termination of Roe's pregnancy did not moot her suit. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | Now, however, I see nothing in it but a very natural and consistent degree of discretion |
Through the Looking-Glass | Carroll, Lewis | She was getting a little giddy with so much floating in the air, and was rather glad to find herself walking again in the natural way. |
Life, the Universe and Everything | Douglas Adams | My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fibre, he muttered to himself, "and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes. |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | So much being known, it would appear natural that a part of it should be expressed |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Javert was evidently somewhat disconcerted by the completely natural air and the tranquillity of Monsieur Madeleine |
Absalom and Achitophel | John Dryden | Whate'er he did was done with so much ease, In him alone 't was natural to please |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | And, after all, I found their natural smell was much more supportable than when they used perfumes, under which I immediately swooned away |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | Their authors are a natural and irresistible aristocracy in every society, and, more than kings or emperors, exert an influence on mankind |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | The richest natural source is yeast. (references) | |
Natural body alarms become activated. (references) | ||
Permethrins are similar to natural pyrethrins. (references) | ||
Business | Venezuela has large reserves of oil, coal, natural gas and hydro resources. (references) | |
Greece currently buys the bulk of its natural gas from Russia (via Bulgaria). (references) | ||
The market for natural gas equipment and machinery in Peru is small but growing. (references) | ||
Children | India | In May Kul Chandra Gautam, the Deputy Director of UNICEF, stated during a meeting of regional senior government leaders, that the "human landscape in our region continues to be characterized by poverty, underdevelopment, discrimination, environmental degradation, social upheaval, conflict and natural disasters. (references) |
Cambodia | There were several documented cases in which individuals or organizations purchased infants or children from their natural parents, created fraudulent paper trails to document the children as orphans, and then earned substantial profits from fees or donations from unwitting adoptive families, including foreign families. (references) | |
Civil Liberties | Cameroon | This definition includes "any group of natural persons or corporate bodies whose vocation is divine worship" or "any group of persons living in community in accordance with a religious doctrine." The denomination then submits a file to the Minister of Territorial Administration. (references) |
Economic History | Italy | Italy has few natural resources. (references) |
Ukraine | Ukraine is rich in natural resources. (references) | |
Rwanda | Rwanda's natural resources are limited. (references) | |
Human Rights | Australia | Of the five, four died from injuries and one died of natural causes. (references) |
Macedonia | The Ministry of Justice reported two deaths in custody as due to natural causes. (references) | |
Pakistan | Some magistrates help cover up the abuse by issuing investigation reports stating that the victims died of natural causes. (references) | |
Indigenous People | Central African Republic | In general Pygmies have little input in decisions affecting their lands, culture, traditions, and the allocation of natural resources. (references) |
New Zealand | A special tribunal continues to hear Maori tribal claims to land and other natural resources stemming from the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. (references) | |
Namibia | By law all indigenous groups participate equally in decisions affecting their lands, cultures, traditions, and allocations of natural resources. (references) | |
Minorities | Liberia | Deaths that appear to be natural or accidental sometimes are rumored to be the work of ritual killers. (references) |
Kenya | Politicians, both opposition and ruling party, from time to time appeal to majority prejudices by attacking Asian citizens, accusing them of exploiting and usurping the natural inheritance of African citizens. (references) | |
Cote d'Ivoire |