Wood scientists and technologists experiment to find the most efficient ways of converting forest resources into useful products for consumers. Toward this end, they explore the physical, biological, and chemical properties of wood and the methods used in growing, processing, and using it. Wood science is conducted for both academic and industrial research and is
The philosophy of science is a subdiscipline of philosophy that utilizes the fields of epistemology (how we know what we know) and metaphysics (the fundamental nature of reality, often outside human observational experience) to study the principles and methods of science and the natural world. It seeks to understand the meaning, method, logical structure, and
In its most basic form, political science can be defined as the study of both the institutions that form states and governments, and the political processes that animate them. The project of systematically examining both normative and positive theories of government and social relationships is an ancient one, dating back at least 3,000 years. Plato
In a classic sense science journalism deals with results, institutions, and processes in science, technology, and medicine. Its main occasions have been publications in journals, lectures at conferences, and prizes (such as the Nobel Prize). Science reporting is not necessarily prompted by the science system. The occasion may also arise from interesting phenomena in daily
Computer Science Career Field Background Computer science careers can be divided into three broad categories, by operation and industry sector: hardware, software, and the Internet. Hardware refers to the physical equipment of a computer, such as motherboards, memory chips, and microprocessors. Software includes the programs that tell the hardware exactly what to do and how
The study of educational practices in mathematics, science, and technology considers the social, psychological, economic, and political forces that affect career choice and cognitive understanding of those subject areas. The field involves the development of theories and methods that explore how students learn complex topics in the sciences and engineering. Many products of research in
Environmental Science Careers Background Environmental science careers have expanded rapidly in the last 35 years, and just about everybody expects that growth to continue for some years. Of course, the reasons behind this success are often disquieting, if not ominous. Ground-level ozone and airborne particles are affecting millions of people throughout the United States. Wildlife
Animal care involves the care and maintenance of animals, both wild and domestic. The animal care field includes the training and breeding of animals, as well as promoting their health and care. It also includes the entire range of actions taken by humans to protect and preserve wildlife and ensure its continued survival, such as
Do you like performing experiments to test scientific hypotheses? Do you enjoy the challenges of working with numbers? Perhaps you like thinking of new and improved designs for vehicles or everyday products. If any of these or similar activities describe you, then you may have the innate curiosity that all of the jobs in the
The rhetoric of science is the application of the resources of the rhetorical tradition to the texts, tables, and visuals of the sciences. It is a relatively new form of rhetorical criticism that began over half a century ago with studies in science policy, shifted in the past quarter century to studies of science itself
Information science (IS) is a multidisciplinary field concerned with “facilitating the effective communication of desired information between human generator and human user” (Belkin 1978, 58). IS became established as an academic discipline with the creation of the American Society for Information Science in 1937 (now abbreviated ASIS&T) and the UK Institute of Information Scientists in
Cognitive science is the study of mind, and is an interdisciplinary field that encompasses psychology, philosophy, computer science, education, neuroscience, anthropology, and linguistics. The intellectual origins of the field can be traced back to the 1950s, when researchers first began to use formal mathematical representations and computational structures to model theories of mind. Cognitive science
Science and medical writers translate technical medical and scientific information so it can be disseminated to the general public and professionals in the field. Science and medical writers research, interpret, write, and edit scientific and medical information. Their work often appears in books, technical studies and reports, magazine and trade journal articles, newspapers, company newsletters
The history and present status of women in science are of interest to sociologists because of the longstanding disparities in women’s and men’s relative rank and levels of productivity in science, but also because of the male domination of the sciences as a whole. A range of psychological, structural, and cultural explanations have been developed
Sociology of science studies the social organization of science, the relationships between science and other social institutions, social influences on the content of scientific knowledge, and public policy regarding science. The definition of the term “science” is problematic. Science can refer to a changing body of shared knowledge about nature or to the methods used
Philosophers of the European Enlightenment defined science in opposition to culture or humanistic knowledge. Science was truth based on verifiable observation and certain logical procedures, and thus stood opposed to all traditional beliefs. Francis Bacon, who initiated the philosophical tradition of elaborating ”demarcation principles” to distinguish science from non science, differentiated science from all knowledge
Thomas Jefferson, quoted in Fischer’s Citizens, Experts, and the Environment (2001), said that wherever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government. But, nowadays, who can claim to be well informed enough about science to govern it except the scientists themselves? In 1959, Sir Charles Snow put forward the thesis
It is commonly held that the declining power and popularity of religion that we see in almost all modern industrial societies owes much to the rise of science; science and religion are competitors in a zero sum game, with the former being vastly more persuasive. As US sociologist Robert Merton pointed out, many of the
The definition and measurement of risk is controversial and much in debate, with risk assessments made by scientists often differing from those of the lay public. Scientific measurements are based on logic and rationality. They tend to ignore or invalidate lay understandings of risk, not taking into account social, experiential, or perceptual influences. However, sociological
The precautionary principle is a regulatory approach, under conditions of scientific uncertainty, requiring that a new chemical or technology be regulated or banned until it is proven safe. This principle was developed in opposition to the dominant regulatory standard, which requires affirmative evidence of harm before regulatory action can be taken. These two approaches designate
The problem of demarcation – how to identify the unique and essential characteristics of science that distinguish it from other intellectual activities – has been addressed both as an analytical matter mainly by philosophers and epistemologists, and as a practical matter by sociologists and historians. The philosophical quest for demarcating science has advanced along different
Science seeks to describe, explain, and predict features of the natural and social worlds. Scientists try to develop theories or explanations of phenomena by means of producing bodies of empirical evidence that play a major role in determining whether theories are accepted, modified, or rejected. In general, scientists seek theories that are logically consistent, empirically
It is because the sciences, especially the natural sciences, were for so long, and by so many, taken to be divorced from culture that their great interpenetration with culture remains surprising and, in some circles, controversial. In recent decades, historians, sociologists, and anthropologists of science have documented many ways in which cultural influences have affected
Although Big Science is a rather nebulous term, most commentators have used it to describe an array of perceived changes in science and scientific practice during and after World War II. Following Alvin Weinberg’s Reflections on Big Science, the term has often been associated with the rise of a military industrial government academic complex, the
Neither science based industry nor university involvement in commercially relevant science is a new phenomenon. In certain sectors, US firms employed scientists in the late nineteenth century, and examples of university-industry collaboration in the United States can be found in the early twentieth century. That said, the advent of the biotechnology industry in the late
Finalization in science is a theory concerning the relationship between science and society from a historical and political perspective. It was developed in the 1970s by Gernot Bohme, Wolfgang van den Daele, and Wolfgang Krohn (Bohme et al. 1972, 1973, 1976, 1978). Its main thesis is that modern science has internal dynamics that allow it
The problem of the role of experts in society may seem to be a topic marginal to the main concerns of sociology, but it is in fact deeply rooted in the sociological project itself. Sociologists and social thinkers have long been concerned with the problem of the role of knowledge in society. Certain Enlightenment thinkers
The health science field has become one of the largest of the career clusters. Approximately 14 million people were employed in some aspect of the U.S. health care system in 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Health care workers are employed as physicians, nurses, nursing aides, technicians, technologists, therapists, and in a host