The word science comes from the Latin "scientia," meaning knowledge. According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, the definition of science is "knowledge attained through study or practice," or "knowledge covering general truths of the operation of general laws, esp. as obtained and tested through scientific method and concerned with the physical world."Science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge. This system uses observation and experimentation to describe and explain natural phenomena. The term science also refers to the organized body of knowledge people have gained using that system. Less formally, the word science often describes any systematic field of study or the knowledge gained from it.
Science as defined above is sometimes called pure science to differentiate it from applied science, which is the application of research to human needs. Fields of science are commonly classified along two major lines:
- Natural sciences, the study of the natural world, and
- Social sciences, the systematic study of human behavior and society.
Science is a continuing effort to discover and increase human knowledge and understanding through disciplined research. Using controlled methods, scientists collect observable evidence of natural or social phenomena, record measurable data relating to the observations, and analyze this information to construct theoretical explanations of how things work. The methods of scientific research include the generation of hypotheses about how phenomena work, and experimentation that tests these hypotheses under controlled conditions. Scientists are also expected to publish their information so other scientists can do similar experiments to double-check their conclusions. The results of this process enable better understanding of past events, and better ability to predict future events of the same kind as those that have been tested.
Development Science
Development Science is one of the youngest social sciences starting out in the late 20th century. It emerged from various applications and specializations in economics, political science, sociology, and to some extent, environmental science. This field tackles matters regarding the development of countries and the world with respect to the economy, environment, government, and society.
Technological innovation
Technology innovation is the process through which new (or improved) technologies are developed and brought into widespread use. In the simplest formulation, innovation can be thought of as being composed of research, development, demonstration, and deployment, although it is abundantly clear that innovation is not a linear process - there are various interconnections and feedback loops between these stages, and often even the stages themselves cannot be trivially disaggregated. Innovation involves the involvement of a range of organizations and personnel (laboratories, firms, financing organizations, etc.), with different institutional arrangements underpinning the development and deployment of different kinds of technologies; contextual factors such as government policies also significantly shape the innovation process. In the energy area, technology innovation has helped expand energy supplies through improved exploration and recovery techniques, increased efficiency of energy conversion and end-use, improved availability and quality of energy services, and reduced environmental impacts of energy extraction, conversion, and use. Most energy innovation is driven by the marketplace, although given the public goods nature of energy services (and reducing their environmental impacts), governments invest significantly in energy research and development programs as well as demonstration and early deployment of selected energy technologies. Still, most investments in energy innovation are targeted towards technologies with clear commercial applications and financial returns, with only marginal investments (at least in relation to the need) towards energy innovation for helping provide modern energy services to the two billion poor people worldwide who don't have access to such services.
Bibliography
http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/science-definition.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/School:Development_science
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation
Tags: Educations, References
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