"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science."--Edwin Powell Hubble
Science begins with Wonder. We ask "Why?" and go from there. What we do next we call Science.
We watch, feel, listen, taste, smell...then interpret. We use reason to relate what we experience to what we have experienced. We group and categorize our experiences, cutting the world into individuals then grouping the individuals into categories.
We pick out objects and note events with those objects as the players.
We note temporal relationships of events. We note frequency of one occurrence followed by another and call common trends causal. When this happens enough we call it a law.
We are skeptical. We amend our law when the evidence is against it. We appeal to no authority but Nature.
Nature is the most beautiful story, the most intricate and elegant game, and we are simply trying to listen to the story and from what we hear learn the rules of the game. We translate the story into the language of mathematics and simplify. We know that Nature is complex, but not convoluted; simplifyable to very basic rules.
The process of simplification is long and tiresome...but the "Eureka!" (I've got it!) moment is well worth it. The simplification takes time and often it seems that it is just too damn complicated...though, with time and effort the pattern will unfold and it is guarantied to be beautiful. The initial appearance of convolution is what I think scares most people...but if well explained ANYONE can understand.
Science does not strip Nature of its beauty! It allows us to see its beauty in all its glory, in all its magic, in all its grandeur.
And after all this, we still wonder "Why?" For we can always try to understand the rules of the game but to try to understand why the game is being played is a much greater task. But we must start with the rules, and enjoy the game...for it truly is the Greatest Game Ever Played.
"This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it."--Thomas Carlyle
We pick out objects and note events with those objects as the players.
We note temporal relationships of events. We note frequency of one occurrence followed by another and call common trends causal. When this happens enough we call it a law.
We are skeptical. We amend our law when the evidence is against it. We appeal to no authority but Nature.
Nature is the most beautiful story, the most intricate and elegant game, and we are simply trying to listen to the story and from what we hear learn the rules of the game. We translate the story into the language of mathematics and simplify. We know that Nature is complex, but not convoluted; simplifyable to very basic rules.
The process of simplification is long and tiresome...but the "Eureka!" (I've got it!) moment is well worth it. The simplification takes time and often it seems that it is just too damn complicated...though, with time and effort the pattern will unfold and it is guarantied to be beautiful. The initial appearance of convolution is what I think scares most people...but if well explained ANYONE can understand.
Science does not strip Nature of its beauty! It allows us to see its beauty in all its glory, in all its magic, in all its grandeur.
And after all this, we still wonder "Why?" For we can always try to understand the rules of the game but to try to understand why the game is being played is a much greater task. But we must start with the rules, and enjoy the game...for it truly is the Greatest Game Ever Played.
"This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it."--Thomas Carlyle
