What are methods used to study meteorites?

Fields of Study in Science

• Earlier this evening I had a conversation with a child about 10 years old. When I asked her how school was going, she said "great" and that science was her favorite class. When I asked her why she liked science, she said that she liked it because she was learning about “EVERYTHING”. What is “everything”? She said it was about animals, plants and people. How we all live and grow, and how things work. I came home and typed in “What is science?” into my favorite search engine. I tried other terms and methods and came up with an awesome number of options. As I perused the sites, I realized that I do not really know all of the possible fields of study. Very sadly, I will admit that my course of studies has included, primarily, non-scientific studies. (Please forgive me, I've even taken courses in Operations Research and Physics taught by the best!) My questions: 1) What is the definition of science? (Please give 3 definitions and their sources.) 2) What is the difference between a ‘hard’ and a ‘soft’ science? What are the “basic” sciences. (These are the terms that were used when I was in school. Are these terms still used?) (Please give 2 definitions and their sources.) 3) Most important, where can I get a LIST of ALL (or most) fields of study in science. This list should include primary (basic?) fields of study. (For example, biology, physics, chemistry, geology, psychology, mathematics) This list should ALSO include at least 5 ‘sub’ levels of study. For example, micro-biology, marine biology, molecular biology … It is also VERY important that your sources can easily be copied and pasted into a spreadsheet so that I can play around with the data, add definitions, major events in the field, etc. Thank you for your help.

• Answer:

  beckyp-ga, To begin, let's answer the question of "What is the definition of science." 1) Merriam-Webster (Ref. 1) gives a good definition of science as "a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study." That compact little statement tells us that science is basically the pursuit of knowledge. It doesn't just apply to "natural" sciences like physics or chemistry, it can also apply to theology or even sports: the "science" of football. 2) The Academic Press (Ref. 2) gives a definition geared more toward the natural sciences: "the systematic observation of natural events and conditions in order to discover facts about them and to formulate laws and principles based on these facts". 3) This site (Ref. 3) at Washington State University gives a lengthy discussion of a definition of science starting from it's Latin root "scire" (to know). In summary, we see that science not only applies to the study "natural" phenomena but to any topic that can be studied and categorized. Let's move on to the difference between a "hard" and a "soft" science. A "hard science" is a science (based on the definition we established above) that is rigorous in it's approach to gathering and furthering knowledge. Astronomy is a good example of this. Before giving a reference to this let's get a definition of a "soft science". Soft sciences are a bit more relaxed in their approach to study and application. Psychology is a good example of this. It has it's rigour in it's methods, but application is very "patient specific" and trial and error. In contrast, going back to astronomy, the prediction of the location of a comet can be made very accurate by the knowledge of a few key parameters (See references 4, 5). So, "hard science" comes from "hard facts" (numbers and the like) whereas "soft science" is based on "fuzzier" knowledge. Basic sciences, as they are usually defined, are just that... "basic". They form the foundation upon which other, more complex sciences, are built. The basic sciences would be (Ref. 6, ignore the fact that the paper is about bioengineering, it has a good discussion of basic sciences): - Chemistry - Physics - Biology (or Life Science) - Mathematics Most other sciences and engineering disciplines are based on these "basics"! Even these are interrelated. Chemistry, Biology and Physics all rely on math. Chemistry relies on Physics, Biology on Chemistry, and Math on Chemistry, Physics and Biology. It's interesting how all these disciplines rely on math, and how math relies on all these disciplines. As for a list of all fields of study... well, this is an attempt (a poor one actually). This turned out to be much harder than I thought. My suggestion o you would be to do some research in a library... browsing shelves, or using the card catalog. The stacks in good university library can show you much more than I am showing you here: Physics:Particle Physics Physics:Mechanics Physics:Applied Physics Physics:Astronomy Physics:Quantum Electronics Physics:Theoretical Physics Physics:Solid State Physics Chemistry:Polymer Chemistry Chemistry:Electronic and Optical Materials Chemistry:Photochemistry Chemistry:Surface Chemistry Chemistry:Organic Chemisty Chemistry:Inorganic Chemistry Biology:Agriculture & Sustainable Development Biology:Behavioral Sciences Biology:Biochemistry Biology:Biotechnology Biology:Botany Biology:Crops & Soils Science Biology:Entomology & Pest Management Biology:Environment, Ecology & Biodiversity Biology:Evolution & Paleontology Biology:Food Science & Technology Biology:Forestry & Renewable Resources Biology:Immunology Biology:Marine Biology Biology:Microbiology Biology:Molecular & Cell Biology Biology:Neurosciences Biology:Parasitology Biology:Physiology and Biophysics Biology:Plant Sciences Biology:Virology Biology:Wildlife & Fisheries Biology:Zoology & Veterinary Medicine Mathematics:Algorithms and Theory Mathematics:Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining Mathematics:Operations Research Mathematics:Statistics Mathematics:Applied Mathematics Mathematics:Algebra and Discrete Mathematics Mathematics:Analysis and Geometry Mathematics:Computational Mathematics See references 7-9 for more information about science in general. References 10 through 13 are some links to Journals published by scientific societies. I hope that this answers your question. Be sure to ask for a clarification if you need it. Best Regards, krobert-ga References: 1) Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th Ed.), Merriam-Webster, Inc. (1998) 2) Science, Definition from AP Dictionary of Science and Technology. http://www.academicpress.com/inscight/12231996/science1.htm 3) What is Science: A Baseline Definition http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/SCIENCE/BASELINE.HTM 4) Hard Science vs. Soft Science http://milpah.com/~bill/notions/ecology/hardsoft.htm 5) Hard Science vs. Soft Science http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22hard+science%22+%22soft+science%22+-%22science+fiction%22+site:edu&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&selm=4e5p9v%24nrh%40bronze.coil.com&rnum=3 6) Basic Sciences Curriculum: The Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Life Science Foundation of a Bioengineering Curriculum http://summit.whitaker.org/white/basic.html 7) American Association for the Advancement of Science http://www.aaas.org 8) Science Resources by Discipline http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/6576/diciplns.htm 9) PhysicsWeb http://physicsweb.org/ 10) Journals of the APS http://publish.aps.org 11) Journals of the ACS http://pubs.acs.org 12) American Mathematical Society Journals Program http://www.ams.org/journals/ 13) ASM Journals Online http://journals.asm.org/