Title: What is Science?
Headings: What is Science?
What is Science?
What is science?
So why do science? I - the individual perspective
Why do Science? II - The Societal Perspective
How Research becomes Scientific Knowledge
Science and Change (and Miss Marple)
Science and Knowledge

Content: Much science is done to understand how the toxins and wastes of our society pass through our water, soil, and air, potentially to our own detriment. Much science is also done to understand how changes that we cause in our atmosphere and oceans may change the climate in which we live and that controls our sources of food and water. In a sense, such science seeks to develop the owner's manual that human beings will need as they increasingly, if unwittingly, take control of the global ecosystem and a host of local ecosystems. Lastly, societies support science because of simple curiosity and because of the satisfaction and enlightenment that come from knowledge of the world around us. Few of us will ever derive any economic benefit from knowing that the starlight we see in a clear night sky left those stars thousands and even millions of years ago, so that we observe such light as messengers of a very distant past. However, the awe, perspective, and perhaps even serenity derived from that knowledge is very valuable to many of us. Likewise, few of us will derive greater physical well-being from watching a flowing stream and from reflecting on the hydrologic cycle through which that stream's water has passed, from the distant ocean to the floating clouds of our skies to the rains and storms upstream and now to the river channel at which we stand. However, the sense of interconnectedness that comes from such knowledge enriches our understanding of our world, and of our lives, in a very valuable way. In recognizing that the light of the sun and the water of a well are not here solely because we profit from their presence, we additionally gain an analogy from which we can recognize that the people in the world around us are not here solely to conform to our wishes and needs. When intangible benefits like these are combined with the more tangible ones outlined above, it's no wonder that most modern societies support scientific research for the improvement of our understanding of the world around us.