Jennifer Crouch - Instant Science

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Portable Press

Publisher: Peter Norton

Associate Publisher: Ana Parker

Editor: April Graham Farr

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Produced by Welbeck Non-fiction Limited

eBook ISBN: 978-1-64517-271-0

eBook Edition: October 2020

Note: All image credits correspond to pages in the printed book.

All illustrations provided by Noun Project with the exception of Soleil Nordic/Shutterstock

Science describes the behavior of natural phenomena, such as electromagnetism and gravity, and uses the language of mathematics to articulate these descriptionsbut science is not nature itself. As physicist Niels Bohr once put it: physics is not nature; its what we can say about nature.

Science (like all knowledge) is collective and formed through collaborative human behaviors that involve methods of performing, developing, and administering scientific experiments; analyzing data; improving the accuracy of tools; and understanding measurements. Science can predict and explain the behavior of matter and is essential in the development of technology, which can be used for good or to cause harm. It is also dependent on public funding, subject to the whims of political interest and economic investment, and thus it is not neutral and does not escape society, social bias, resource-related issues, or politics.

This book presents knowledge circa 2020 and perhaps in five, ten, fifty, or one hundred years the contents of this book will need to be completely revised as new discoveries are made. The aim of this book is to summarize 160 different topics, providing short descriptions, brief histories, and explanations of scientific ideas across math, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, ecology, geology, and technology. As each topic is limited to one page, make use of the glossary where necessary; use the units table, scientists, data sheets, and equations at the back.

Scientific knowledge and practice evolve with technology and the ever-changing design of experiments, as well as with new ways of communicating and collaborating. The scientific method formulates hypotheses that are developed into theories. A theory in the context of science is very different from the everyday use of the word theory: a scientific theory has a lot of evidence supporting iti.e., the theory of electromagnetic induction, or relativity, or evolution.

Theories become accepted through repeatable observations drawn from experimental and measurement-based testing, which different groups of scientists seek to falsify (prove false) in order to avoid biases. The more we discover and the more precise technology gets, the more our theories can be challenged. The theories that are extensively challenged and still hold true become accepted.

Science is collaborative and dependent on the technical, intellectual, and emotional efforts of large groups of people working together on international projects that contribute toward generating our shared scientific knowledge. Science is a culture within cultures and depends on interactions among people working in teams in very specific environments (i.e., laboratories) that require the use of specialist equipment that needs to be designed and made from materials extracted from the Earthwhich, as we will discover, has its own problems. Once laboratories are built they must then be managed.

Science is difficult to do. In practice, it is full of tricky technological challenges, experiments failing, cell cultures dying, magnet cooling systems exploding, and things generally going wrong. Its complex, fiddly, and confusing at the best times. In fact, much of the history of science is buried away in its failures but these (while not documented in this book) are important to acknowledge, rather than perceive of science as a series of seamless, glorious, paradigm-shifting innovations and discoveries. Much toil goes into creating our descriptions of nature.

In addition to this, the personal challenges encountered by individuals and groups who have been discriminated against and experienced racism, homophobia, sexism, classism, and bullying in these social, albeit scientific, spaces must continue to be confronted. As the CERNs Particles for Justice website states:

The humanity of any person, regardless of ascribed identities such as race, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, disability, gender presentation, or sexual identity is not up for debate. (source: particlesforjustice.org)

Science is powerful and affects us all, from the internet, to the weaponization of science in warfare, to green energy, architecture, engineering, and developments in medicine and surgery. We all have a stake in it and a right to understand the wonderful things it tells us about our universe so that we can think about and question who it benefits, who it harms, and how it is being used here on Earth.

Understanding quantities and concepts of numbers is something all humans learn and need to do.

With gradual changes in lifestyle, traveling, growing crops, keeping track of resources, trading, and cultural exchange, new ways of writing numbers emerged.

The Ishango Bone is an ancient African artifact that is 20,000 years old. It is the earliest example of representing numbers as a series of tally lines.

Sumerian artifacts from at least 4000 BC demonstrate the earliest evidence of arithmetic being used. Sumerian counting followed a sexagesimal (base 60) counting system.

The Ancient Egyptians used a hieroglyphic number system to express geometric concepts and plan the building of the Pyramids.