In the Name of Science!!!

albertI. It is difficult even to attach a precise meaning of the term "scientific truth." Thus the meaning of the word "truth" varies according to whether we deal with a fact of experience, a mathematical proposition, or scientific theory. "Religious truth" conveys nothing clear to me at all.

II. Scientific research can reduce supersition by encouraging people to think and view things in terms of cause and effect. Certain it is that a conviction, akin to religous feeling, of the rationality or intelligibility of the world lies behind all scientific work of a higher order.

III. This firm belief, a belief bound up with deep feeling, in a superior mind that reveals itself in the world of experience, represents my conception of God. In common parlance this may be described as "pantheistic."

IV. Denominational traditions I can only consider historically and psychologically; they have no other significance for me. --Albert Einstein

So What's This Page About?

There are many different topics that we talk about in Arts and Sciences "Great Ideas." Although all the topics are very interestiong, I will mainly focus on Scientific Revolution (I'm a physics major, what else would I do?). If you wish to see information on the other topics, I suggest that you go to the original Great Ideas Homepage.

Scientific Revolution[s]

Scientific Revolution was (and still is) an idea that dramatically changed the course of humanity. I feel that this idea is one of the most important topics studied this semester because it affects so many people. As a matter of fact, without a Scientific Revolution I wouldn't be using the "Information Superhighway" to communicate with you. The Revolution, however, is more than just technology. It is a method, a way of thinking, and almost a religion to some people.

The one characteristic of scientists during these times was their objectivity. Nothing was sacred to them except the truth and the path to finding the truth. Even during punishments by the Catholic Church (as in the case of Galileo), these men stood their ground. It was Copernicus who started the Revolution in 1543 with his publishing of De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium. This document disagreed with the accepted views of the Catholic Church that the Earth was the center of the universe. After Copernicus, Galileo (1600) came along and also disagreed with the Church on the position of Earth in the cosmos. Only for his beliefs, he was punished. During his lifetime Galileo stressed the importance of mathematical interpretation of experiments. This led to the beginning of the use of Scientific Method. This is an organized way to analyze problems and find solutions. Generally there are five steps to the Scientific Method.

Other noted scientists that follwed after Galileo were Kepler, Harvey, and Boyle.

Probably the most important person in the Scientific Revolution in the 1600's was Sir Isaac Newton. At the time of Newton science became a methodology and explanation for things that used to be almost magical. Newton contributed to science in many different ways. The first (and probably most important) was his three laws of physics:

Along with these laws he did work with light and gravity. Along the way, he developed a new mathematics to handle the physics. This math is called calculus.

After Newton, people began to investigate electricity and electomagnetic radiation. Faraday was a pioneer in this area, but Maxwell expanded Faraday's theories of electricity and magnetism into one unified theory in the mid 1800's. These laws are better known as Maxwell's wonderful equations.

It was around the middle 1800's that scientists began to feel that they had a real good grasp on the physical world. As a matter of fact, all that they felt there was left to do was find physical constants to a more precise number. That all changed in the late 1800's. There was a New Scientific Revolution that swept the world, this time it was about the nature of atoms. Great physicists such as Einstein, Rutherford, Thompson, and Bohr led science into the new area of atomic physics.

The development of the theory about atoms developed roughly in the same manner as Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler developed planetary motion. It all began with Thompson's "plum pudding" model in early 1900's. He thought that the atom was like plum pudding (fruit cake) in that it had a consistant positive body (the cake) with little negative charges (like the fruit) spread throughout. Right away Rutherford tested this theory and proved it a failure. He then proposed his own idea that there was a positive core nucleus with and electron cloud around it. That seemed to be logical, but it was not good enough for the critics. So, Niels Bohr came along and proposed his theory by using classical or newtonian physics to explain it. He said that there was indeed a nucleus and there were tiny opposite charges that orbitted the nucleus (like planetary motion). All of these theories acted as building blocks for what is now called Quantum Mechanics.

Where does Einstein fit into this? Well, Einstein is most noted for his equation E=mc^2 (energy=mass* speed of light squared). Essentially this means that anything with mass has energy just because it has mass. That is very important and is the underlying principle in the atomic bomb. Einstein also developed an idea that explained some of the results of the Bohr atom. Einstein said that the energy of light is quantized in little packets called photons. Every photon has an energy that is equal to the product of Planck's constant, h, and the frequency of the light,f (E=hf). This idea began the New Scientific Revolution.

Thanks to the previously mentioned scientists (and many that were not mentioned) we have the technology we have today. Much of the electronical components used in everyday life (including computers) are direct results from the New Scientific Revolution of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most of the information given on the internet is about the "big" scientists such as Newton or Einstein. I tried to give a little background information about about the New Scientific Revolution for several reasons:

With no more hesitation -- SOME LINKS

Science Links from Around the World

Words from a great scientist, Dr. Feynman:

No science page would be complete without the wise words of Dr. Feynman!!! Dr. Feynaman was only 25 (or 26 I'm not quite sure) when he was asked to be a theorist on the Manhattan Project (you know, the Bomb). Later on in life he became a professor and was known for his lecturing skills and his ease with handling difficult modern physics problems.

Just for Fun!

Some of my favorite non-science websites

Thanks for visiting my page. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please feel free to e-mail me at nash@andy.bgsu.edu.