What is science?
Science is the search for knowledge about the world
and the way it works. Unlike other ways of explaining
how the world works, science is based on experiments
that test theories (ideas).
BEFORE SCIENCE
In the past, people relied on ancient
stories to explain such things as how
life began, why the Sun appears to
cross the sky, what lies beyond the
oceans, and so on. These stories
often came from religious books or
from scholars who dreamed up
imaginative ideas without checking
them. Because the stories were never
tested, there were hundreds of
different versions, and every culture
had a different version of the truth.
Orange juice
SCIENCE
How does science work?
Science began when people started to
check their ideas about the world.
One of the first people to do this was
an English doctor named William
Gilbert (1544–1603). He performed
many experiments on magnetism and
eventually proved that
the Earth is like a
giant magnet.
Proving theories
Although scientists can prove that a
bad theory is wrong, they can never
prove that a good theory is absolutely
right. Even if a theory seems correct,
someone could always do a new
experiment in the future and prove
it wrong. So theories
always remain
theories.
Testing theories
Scientists begin with an idea, or “theory.”
Imagine you have a cold but get better
after drinking orange juice. You might
form a theory that orange juice cures
colds. To test this, you could give orange
juice to people with colds. If they get
better faster than people who don’t drink
juice, the theory is
strengthened.