·   Introduction to Science and Biology  

    What is Science?   A systematically organized body of knowledge to be gained by research that encompasses inquiry and investigations based upon verifiable experimental observations is what we call as Science. In fact the word ‘Science’ is itself self explanatory and is being derived from a Latin verb-“Scire” that itself means - “to know”.  Similarly, as a Latin noun- “Scientia’, it lends itself to a meaning called “knowledge”.

·         Notably, in common parlance, we tend to understand by the term science as something that includes natural sciences just because the discipline of science is concerned mainly with the study of nature and natural phenomenon. Similarly, there are other areas of study what we call as social sciences that invariably include the disciplines such as Sociology, Political science, Economics, Civics etc and have mainly to do with the study of social or social aspects of the man or mankind as such, based on traditions and reasoning. And finally, there are still other areas of study called as abstract sciences that chiefly include the subjects like Mathematics or Statistics etc. because these subjects essentially zeroes in on the study of something called abstract relationships of magnitudes and numbers. Notwithstanding this all, our main area of concern here in the context is to focus on the real sciences or so called Natural or Basic Sciences.

·         Natural or Basic Science: is the Science typically so called as and is broadly divisible into two main branches called as Physical Sciences & Life or Biological sciences. While the former deals with the study, behavior & characteristics of the inanimate matter so called physical matter of the nature and thus, constitutes the subjects like, Physics, Chemistry, Geology, Astronomy and Metallurgy etc Whereas, the latter has its relationship with the study of animate things of the nature or simply said, the study of life and living organisms falls in the domain of Biological or life sciences. Today, owing to the discovery of immense biodiversity, many offshoots have emerged as against the traditionally known two limbs of the biological sciences called as Botany and Zoology. In the subsequent years, when the electron microscope was invented that facilitated the observation of that microscopic life which defied their observation through the naked eyes before the electron microscopy era and hence, the birth of another offshoot of biology took place, what we today know as microbiology.

·         Social Sciences: The term social science seems to be a misnomer, if we try to define the word science in the strict sense of the term. Since the social science has largely to do with the task of studying the nature and behavior of man which in any case, can never be constant and same under all the conditions and circumstances and at the same time, man’s nature is also subjected to fluctuations and thus, remains unpredictable. This is something that goes entirely against what we call as science. Therefore, any scientific fact or phenomenon that is not only marked with predictability but has universality of application too.

·         21^st. Century- Age of Science & technological revolution:  The present century and current era is undoubtedly an era of Science that has pervaded the human life so pervasively that it has come to weave in the entire web of human life. Right from the basic medicines to high end electronic gadgets, there are countless other visible manifestations of a constructive use of science. Today, only that nation is practically called as developed and a progressive one that makes an extensive use of science and scientific technologies to drive the engine of their national economy. India to emerge as a developed country it needs to invest more and more in training the vast human resource on scientific lines for which every citizen of India shall necessarily be expected to acquire scientific knowledge and scientific awareness so as to propel the engine of India’s overall growth and scientific prowess.

·         Methods of science:  Since the discipline of science is always associated with certain concrete and universally applicable laws, principles and facts that essentially form the subject matter of science. These laws and principles are established on the basis of repeated experimentation and observations by one and hence, can similarly be tested or verified experimentally by any other. Given thus, there is nothing like a hypothetical proposition put forth by someone to explain a natural phenomenon or process that simply reflects the imagination that one may have with regard to a particular fact of the nature. In contrast to this, a given fact explained through a scientific principle or law that can be subjected to verification any moment does not carry any subjective or individual perception of some one, but has been propounded after thorough experimentation and observations made thereafter to formulate a particular scientific principle or law. Once, a particular natural phenomenon is observed and is being desired to be tested on scientific lines by a scientist, he may proceed in the direction by following certain discrete procedural steps to reach at a certain conclusion. Such procedural steps are collectively called as the “Methods of Science” or so called scientific procedures which are briefly mentioned herein below:

·         Step1. Observation: Anything that we can see through our eyes in the nature around us or we can tangibly feel or perceive with the help of our other sense organs is what that constitutes the observation part of our scientific inquiry. Anything that has been observed by us in the nature till the time it is explored and revealed through experimentation would remain nothing more than a mystery for us or for anybody else and thus constitutes what we call as the Gross Problem of science. Once this gross problem of science is indentified, and then follows the next step of scientific procedure called as:

·         Step2. Defining the problem: Whatever that has been observed by a scientist in nature either as a natural phenomenon or thing, his scientific mind won’t rest until he gets to discover at least, to himself as what is to be looked at or being investigated in the said gross problem and once he does that he succeeds in defining the problem on which he is going to invest his concentration and ingenuity. He defines the problem of scientific investigation by posing to himself some questions of the nature of: why is it this way. Why not otherwise? Or likewise. This way he eventually indentifies the actual problem that is to be investigated scientifically!

·         Step3. Hypothesizing the problem:  This step involves the formulation of provisional postulates or probabilities that a scientist initially builds around the indentified problem and proceeds further to opt out the most likely of them that can reasonably explain the problem. In short, this step encompasses the possible causes and the most likely valid reasons that a scientist thinks could be attributable to the subject matter of the problem.

·         Step4. Experimentation or Empirical testing: As a scientist indentifies the closely linked causes that may be attributed to the scientific problem, his next step involves the construction of relevant postulates or propositions, justifying his rationale behind the same. But the said postulates would remain as such and do not reflect an endeavor of scientific inquiry on his part unless and until, he supports them all through experimentation. Thus he proceeds ahead to corroborate his postulates by putting in place the required experimental conditions say, in a laboratory or some field exercises. Doing so, it calls upon a scientist to carefully maintain a scientific record and data base of all his findings so that he could derive & deduce the natural inferences out of the same to build a safe theory later on.

·         Note: The significance of this scientific procedural step can be gauged considering the success that John Gregor Mendel met with during his experimental spree on the garden pea to have led him laying the foundation of the science of Genetics while unconsciously discovering the famous laws of heredity that regaled him to the status of being called the father of genetics even today.

·         Step5. Theorizing: This marks the last step of scientific procedure and comes into play once a scientist puts his hypothesis to experimentation and inferences derived thereof have been jotted down by him clearly. Next task will be the compilation of all those inferences into a compact and coherent documented form so as a scientist could get them published. Once the same is published it is declared as a theory and hence, is placed before the scientific world to seek their comments, reactions or criticism thereon. If the theory turns out to be a plausible one and stands out convincingly, the same shall be accepted by the world at large and hence, finally written into a universally accepted law or principle of science…

·         Having a perusal of all the above mentioned procedural aspects that go into making a scientific principle or scientific law of a particular natural event or phenomenon, we may simply conclude that the core function of science in essence, is to uncover the mysteries of the Mother Nature….

·         What’s a “Scientific Theory”? A scientifically tested and scientifically acceptable general principle offered to explain a natural fact is called a scientific theory. A sound and good theory can indeed simplify and clarify our understanding of a natural phenomenon. At the same time, it further stimulates research on the part of other scientists in the field and thus, sooner or later stands a chance of gaining acceptability and recognition from the world community of scientists at large and thereby, getting the natural fact being propounded in the form of a theory to be acceptable as a universal scientific principle or law.

·         On the other hand, a poor theory is not only subjected to contradictions, but is liable to discarded for once and for all for not being able to conform to the uniformity of results as it is subjected to experimentation in different parts of the world. An example of a good theory can be given about all that Gregor Mendel, the Austrian monk propounded on the mechanism of inheritance of characters from parents to their offsprings which he proposed after his experimental spree on pea plant and having it compiled in the form of a theory that was published for the first time in the year 1866 in a journal brought out by the natural history of Brunn. The goodness of his theory lay in the fact that even 30 years after his death; his findings on the mechanism of heredity were re explored and rediscovered by a trio of scientists independently to conclude that what Mendel had theorized about 30 years ago on the mechanism of heredity was not only correct and scientifically valid that his findings deserved to be codified into some universal laws and principles of heredity what all we understand today as Mendel’s laws of heredity and for this, hailing Mendel as the father of Genetics.

·         There is similarity at the bottom of the entire universe:

·         Interestingly, the whole matter of which this cosmos is made whether, living or non-living incidentally, has the same organizational hierarchy at the basic level. Similarly, the behavior of the matter is also governed by the same two universal laws of the science that apply equally to both living and non-living matter and are respectively called as: First law of thermodynamics:“States that energy can neither be created nor destroyed but can be converted from one form to the other.”Second law of thermodynamics: “States that whenever energy is converted from one form to the other, it is always accompanied by the loss of energy in the form of heat and thus contributes to entropy.” In other words, the exact implication of this law is that there is no system ever made or present on the earth that can be 100% efficient. There can only be two types of systems that can be present on this earth called as Open & Closed. A system that is of an open kind is what that defines a living and life and the one that is closed is non-living or dead…