1. IST 511 Information Management: Information and Technology
What is Science and the Scientific Method
Dr. C. Lee Giles
David Reese Professor, College of Information Sciences and Technology
Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
Thanks to Tyler Nordgren

2. What is Science?
"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science”
Science is a process for investigating and explaining the natural world
Science creates theories and “laws”, all of which are testable
Theories explain laws
Laws predict
Edwin Hubble,

3. The Scientific Method Observe an event(s).
Develop a model (or hypothesis) which makes a prediction to explain the event
Test the prediction with data
Observe the result.
Revise the hypothesis.
Repeat as needed.
A successful hypothesis becomes a Scientific Theory.
model
test

4. Medical Science Scientific Method High Cholesterol Observation
Patient has high cholesterol
Hypothesis (prediction)
Certain chemicals may dissolve cholesterol deposits.
Test
Give 100 patients these chemicals, give 100 patients placebo.
Observe result
Same number lower their cholesterol as placebo patients.
Revise hypothesis?
Try different combo of chemicals.
New test?
Re-run medical test. Observe results.
Scientific Theory
Lipitor reduces cholesterol.

5. Everyday Science Scientific Method Car Repair Observation
Engine won’t turn over.
Hypothesis (prediction)
Predict battery is dead.
Test
Replace battery.
Observe result
Engine now turns over.
Revise hypothesis?
Not needed.
New test?
Scientific Theory
Cars won’t work without a fully charged battery.

6. Making Spaghetti Sauce
Everyday Science
Scientific Method
Making Spaghetti Sauce
Observation
Spaghetti sauce should be red.
Hypothesis (prediction)
Try a tomato sauce.
Test
Heat pot of tomato sauce.
Observe result
Taste the sauce - bland.
Revise hypothesis?
Use tomato sauce and garlic!
New test?
Add garlic, taste - not so bland.
Scientific Theory
The Final Recipe.

7. Repeatability A successful theory is repeatable. By you. By anyone.
Examples:
Cold Fusion (1989)
Ecstasy (Science, 2003)
Science can be done well or poorly

8. Requirements Objective reality We all see the same world.
Constant Laws of Nature
What happens here, happens there.
What happened yesterday will happen tomorrow.
The Cosmos is knowable.

9. Does it work? Scientific Method is a tool. Does this tool work?
Life expectancy
Mortality rates
Construction/mechanics
etc
Are there better tools?

10. Theories A theory is a highly successful hypothesis.
All hypotheses make predictions.
All theories make predictions.
All theories can be tested.
Result: Any scientific theory is subject to change as our ability to make tests, or make observations of a test’s results, improves with time.

11. Non-scientific Theories
Make no predictions
Un-testable
Can’t be falsified

12. Non-scientific Theories
Car won’t work?  Aliens drained the battery.
Spaghetti is bland?  You were meant to eat bland food.
Car won’t work?  Gods must be angry.
Spaghetti is bland?  At the instant of tasting, tongue is transported to alternate dimension where all flavors are rendered nullified. Happens instantaneously.

13. Non-scientific Theories
Viking Orbiter (1976)
Mars Global Surveyor (1998)
The chain of events needed for life to arise is too complicated to have happened by chance, a divine intelligence must therefore have caused life to arise (Intelligent Design).
Face on Mars.

14. Falsification
A real Scientific Theory tells you what observations are necessary to falsify it.
Not so proponents of:
Face on Mars
Moon Hoax
Intelligent Design
Astrologers

15. Astrology Tests
What test would falsify astrology?

16. Astrology and a President
“[Former White House Chief of Staff, Donald] Regan and others make a compelling case that in 1986 and 1987 astrological influence dramatically reduced the presidency's effectiveness, at least partly, by keeping Ronald Reagan under wraps for much of the time. Nancy's intrusions in the scheduling process, Regan said in an interview with TIME last week, ‘began to interfere with the normal conduct of the presidency.’”
(TIME, May 16, 1988)
(TIME, May 16, 1988) --
“The First Lady dabbled in astrology as far back as In 1981 [Joan] Quigley made Nancy a believer …. And from then on, no presidential public appearance was slated without the Friend's say-so. To this day, Nancy's Friend continues to influence the President's schedule. For the Reagan-Gorbachev Washington summit, she cast the charts of both men and determined
that 2 p.m. on Dec. 8, 1987, was the most propitious moment for them to sign the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty. At Nancy's behest, the entire summit was built around that hour. For the upcoming Moscow summit, Gorbachev's chart (he is a Pisces) has been recast alongside Reagan's (Aquarius).”

17. Science as a Tool Kit
Science is an intellectual “tool kit” that humans have developed for the purpose of explaining and controlling our environment
It is an intensely practical endeavor
Not a “belief system” predicated upon faith or adherence to anything other than a requirement for practical results
Thereby achieving a measure of control
The fruits of this endeavor are
New knowledge
New technology
Technology and science often work hand in hand.
Technology can produce new science
Science can produce new technology
Which is more important?

18. What is Technology?
Gateway To Technology
Unit 1 – Lesson 1.1 – What is Engineering?
What is Technology?
Technology is the process by which humans modify nature to meet their needs and wants.
Human innovation in action!
People have to need it – people have to want it – in order for technology to happen.

19. Technology vs. Science Technology Science
What is Technology?
Gateway To Technology
Unit 1 – Lesson 1.1 – What is Engineering?
Technology vs. Science
Technology
Study of our human-made world
Deals with “what can be”
Science
Study of our natural world
Deals with “what is”
When we study Science, we look at it in different subject areas.
Earth Science
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
Astronomy
Meteorology
Other specialty areas such as Quantum Physics and Computer Science

20. The History of Science Science is a relatively recent endeavor
Certain technological advances were known to the ancients
The axle/wheel unit ~7000 BCE in Europe
Paper in China ~600 BCE
Gunpowder (again in China) ~900 CE
The compass ~80 CE
But technology is not science

21. The History of Science
Such advances were sporadic and did not rely on a coherent system of investigation
“Accidental” & didn’t hinge on a systematic approach to their development
Thales of Miletus
Perhaps the first scientist
The “first to express his ideas in logical and not mythological terms”
But the true development of science awaited the invention of one of its major components…
BCE

22. The Experiment A crucial component of the scientific process
Cited by Peter Watson as one of the three great ideas in the history of humanity
Robert Grosseteste
Emphasized mathematics
Observation & experiment as the essential methods to test hypotheses
Roger Bacon
Predicted that science would someday give mastery over nature
Forecast submarines, automobiles and airplanes
c – 9 October 1253
c – 1294

23. The Emergence of Science
“These principles transformed the study of scientific data from a fairly random exercise to an integrated mathematical inquiry into physical phenomena based upon the tripartite cycle of observation, hypothesis and experimental verification”
– William Chester Jordan, Europe in the High Middle Ages

24. Integration of the Scientific Toolkit
Experiment and hypothesis must produce tangible results
Derived conclusions must be:
Tentative
Testable
Falsifiable
Lead to predictions which in turn can be tested by observation, measurement and experiment
Science is self-correcting

25. Stuttering Progress
The history of scientific thought is uneven and stuttering
Many blind alleys are pursued and (eventually) discarded or modified
Newton was only partially correct
Einstein modified and extended Newtonian physics
In the end, though, its progress has been remarkable and singularly successful in defining & controlling external reality
And giving evidence for the existence of external reality
“There are no pure social constructionists at 30,000 feet”

26. The Rules of Science

27. Negative Rules of Science (things which are not done)
Adhere to dogma
i.e. conclusions are always tentative
This does not mean that faith is “bad”
It just means that it is not part of the scientific process
Resort to the supernatural
Note that science does not say there is no supernatural or that you can’t turn to it
Again, it just says that if you do so it ceases to be science

28. Compromise and “fairness” are not part of Science
2 + 2 = 4 vs = 6
does not mean that
2 + 2 = 5
One does not “teach both sides” if one side has overwhelming evidence to support it

29. Absolutes vs Relative Science has absolutes Gravity
Try stepping off a bridge
How often will you fall?
Only if you take actions not to fall or
Where there is no gravity
Relativity and uncertainty in physics is not relative

30. Intellectual Tension in the Pursuit of Science
Scientists must balance many seemingly contradictory impulses
Eternal skepticism vs. open mindedness
Doubting one’s own and other’s hypotheses /
Demanding evidence
Eschewing dogma
Considering new (sometimes disturbing) explanations for the world
The inadequacy of the concept of “majority”

31. An Important Corollary
Common Sense is not Necessarily a Good Guide to External Reality

32. Intellectual Tension in the Pursuit of Science
These inherent tensions are often misunderstood by non-scientists
They see the very strength of science (its tentativeness) as a weakness
“Fiber prevents colon cancer”
….”oops, no it doesn’t”
Whether babies should be placed on their backs or their stomachs to prevent SIDS

33. Evolution as a Case Study
Evolutionary theory explains the diversity of life and its underlying cohesion
Observation
Homologous structures in different organisms
Similarities in embryos
Hypothesis
Common Descent with natural selection as a driving force in speciation

34. Evolution as a Case Study
Prediction
The mechanism underlying heredity must be compatible with random heritable change & subject to selective pressures
Modern genetics is nothing more than a grand fulfillment of predictions inherent in evolutionary theory as laid out by Darwin and others
The age of the earth
Discovery of intermediate fossil forms
Archyopteryx
Tiktaalik roseae

35. Evolution as a Case Study
Experiment
Viral and bacterial changes due to selective pressures
Antibiotics
Decades of data on finch beaks on the Galapagos
Dog and pigeon breeding
Tentativeness and Revision
Darwin’s original theory allowed a role for Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics
Now discredited

36. Friction Between Science and Culture
Arises because science has a tangible impact on questions that it can inform but not fully answer
When does life begin?
When does life end?
Where did humanity come from?
In so doing it inevitably encounters friction with belief systems that have sought to explain some of the same things

37. Science vs. Religion
Since the rise of modern science, tension has existed between it and religion
Science does undermine certain religious claims
The earth is more than 6000 years old
It was not predominantly shaped by a great flood
Humans did not appear de novo in their present form within the last few thousand years

38. Science and Religion
The explanatory success of science cannot tell us how to act in the realm of morality and ethics
Though science does illuminate much about the existence of ethics via evolutionary psychology and neurobiology
A reliance on science is not inherently inconsistent with the existence of a god
Empirically demonstrated by the fact that there are many scientists who believe in a god

39. Why Does it Matter?
Lysenko set the Soviet Union back by decades (and millions starved) because of junk science
Mao dismissed Einsteinian physics as at odds with Marxist philosophy of an “infinite universe with endless class struggle”
We ignore scientific evidence of global warming and environmental degradation at our own peril

40. Why Does it Matter?
Science has brought great misery in addition to benefits
War has been a driving force in the development of science and technology
Unintended consequences of material benefits
We need to understand the tangible impact of science for good and for ill

41. Intangible Impact of Science
Sheer pleasure in understanding our world
A component of awe and wonder
Bringing an added dimension of beauty to our appreciation of the world

42. An Added Dimension of Beauty

43. The Limits of Science Are there physical limits to our knowledge?
Animal brains are limited; are ours?
Are our brains are up to the job of omniscience?
Will we complement our brains?
Moral issues
Computational morality/ethics
Policy
Information science seems to be important in all arenas – the only need is the use of information.

44. Data rules! Values in Science Integrity Honesty
Constant questioning, experiments
Data (without data, there is no science)
To be a science, there must be data
Data rules!

45. eScience: What is it? Synthesis of information technology and science.
Science methods are evolving (tools).
Science is being codified/objectified. How represent scientific information and knowledge in computers?
Science faces a data deluge. How to manage and analyze information?
Scientific communication changing
publishing data & literature (curation, access, preservation) 53

46. Science Paradigms Thousand years ago: science was empirical
describing natural phenomena
Last few hundred years: theoretical branch
using models, generalizations
Last few decades: a computational branch
simulating complex phenomena
Today: data science (eScience)
unify theory, experiment, and simulation
Data captured by instruments or generated by simulator
Processed by software
Information/Knowledge stored in computer
Scientist analyzes database / files using data management and statistics 54

48. Can Information Science help eScience?
Data management
Data access
Data structure
Data search
Data storage
Data gathering
Cyberinfrastructure
Ex at IST:

49. Discussion Questions Are these sciences? Economics Political science
Information science
Sociology
Astronomy
What is the role of information in science or escience?