2. Introduction:- Science For Society
• Science is the greatest collective endeavour. It contributes to ensuring a longer and healthier life,
monitors our health, provides medicine to cure our diseases, alleviates aches and pains, helps us
to provide water for our basic needs – including our food, provides energy and makes life more
fun, including sports, music, entertainment and the latest communication technology. Last but not
least, it nourishes our spirit.
• Though modern science is of relatively recent origin in human history, it has made very rapid
progress and transformed outwardly the manner of our living. It is said that our life outwardly has
changed more in the last one hundred years than it did earlier in thousands of years. And this is
largely because of the scientific knowledge accumulated over the last three centuries, and its
application in the form of technology. The impact of science on society is very visible; and the
results of progress in agriculture, medicine and health care, telecommunications, transportation,
computerization and so on, are part of our daily living.
• Despite this progress in science, and the consequent development of technology and industry,
with the attendant comforts as well as power, in no part of the world are human beings happy and
at peace with themselves, living without violence. It was hoped that the development of science
would usher in an era of peace and prosperity, but that has been belied. On the contrary, if we
look at the level of violence throughout the world during successive ten-year periods since 1900,
in every decade, in every country, the crime-graph continues to go up. What we see on the one
hand is greater economic prosperity, but on the other, greater violence, sorrow, anxiety along with
acute ecological imbalances and new diseases.
• Science must respond to societal needs and global challenges. Public understanding and
engagement with science, and citizen participation including through the popularization of science
are essential to equip citizens to make informed personal and professional choices. Governments
need to make decisions based on quality scientific information on issues such as health and
agriculture, and parliaments need to legislate on societal issues which necessitate the latest
scientific knowledge. National governments need to understand the science behind major global
challenges such as climate change, ocean health, biodiversity loss and freshwater security.
• To face sustainable development challenges, governments and citizens alike must understand
the language of science and must become scientifically literate. On the other hand, scientists
must understand the problems policy-makers face and endeavour to make the results of their
research relevant and comprehensible to society.
• Challenges today cut across the traditional boundaries of disciplines and stretch across the
lifecycle of innovation -- from research to knowledge development and its application. Science,
3. Science- A boon to the Society
• Improved Our Living Standard - Science has made our living standard to raise
from a normal level to a luxurious one. Today we have been provided with a lot of
facilities. Earlier there were limited means of transportation and today we have a
bike or car in every house. The time of radio has been transformed by televisions,
home theatres, laptops, mobiles, etc.
• Involved in Our Daily Routines - The use of television, geysers, refrigerators, fan,
telephone, gas stove, etc. are brought into the use of human beings which are
incredible discoveries of science. Without these technologies, we cannot imagine
our life. They have become our necessities.
• Useful in Medical Science and Treatment - There are cures and medicines
available for different incurable diseases. Different machines are developed for
diagnosing various diseases that could not be easily diagnosed earlier. Science
has made such things possible that were considered impossible at a time. It is
because of science that there are medicines and cures available for chronic
diseases.
• Facilitated Communication - People can easily send messages and emails. The
technology has enhanced in such a way that a person sitting in one country can
easily contact people in other countries. This also has been a boon for trade and
businesses which in turn helps in boosting the economy of the nation.
• Aid in Learning and Teaching - The science era has brought various changes.
There are smart classes instead of a board, chalk, and duster. The distance
learning program is an aid for the students of remote areas who are unable to
4. Science- A bane to the Society
• Due to various scientific inventions, the jungle tracts has been destroyed thus
creating harm to the ecological balance.
• Today though the vehicles have reduced the distance for us, the pollution it
causes cannot be overlooked.
• Has lessened the amount of physical exercises there by increasing several
ailments and posture diseases, as well as addiction to social Media!
• Environmental Degradation - The gaseous pollutants like smoke, dust, NOx, SOx,
generated from industrial areas and vehicles, effluents discharged from the
factories are posing a great threat to our environment. They are degrading the
quality of air, water, soil. These developed inventions are a gift of science but are
totally a curse if they are causing harm to our environment. Many lost their lives
in the leakage of Chernobyl Nuclear power plant and due to the Methyl Iso
cyanate (MIC) gas leakage in Bhopal a few years back. This was due to the so
called scientific advancements. This is because of human failure to anticipate
the Disasters.
• Development of Life Ending Weapons - Science and its technologies utilized in a
negative way can create biological weapons that can cause the destruction of the
whole world. Technologies can also be used to develop modern weapons that may
be dangerous for human existence. The atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki during World War 2 has its devastating effects existing till date. The
atom bomb was also the invention of science.
5. Science is inherently a social enterprise—in sharp contrast to a popular stereotype
of science as a lonely, isolated search for the truth. With few exceptions, scientific
research cannot be done without drawing on the work of others or collaborating
with others. It inevitably takes place within a broad social and historical context,
which gives substance, direction, and ultimately meaning to the work of individual
scientists, uses accepted principles of ethics and conduct.
The object of research is to extend human knowledge of the physical, biological, or
social world beyond what is already known. But an individual's knowledge properly
enters the domain of science only after it is presented to others in such a fashion
that they can independently judge its validity. This process occurs in many different
ways. Researchers talk to their colleagues and supervisors in laboratories, in
hallways, and over the telephone. They trade data and speculations over computer
networks. They give presentations at seminars and conferences. They write up their
results and send them to scientific journals, which in turn send the papers to be
scrutinized by reviewers. After a paper is published or a finding is presented, it is
judged by other scientists in the context of what they already know from other
sources. Throughout this continuum of discussion and deliberation the ideas of
individuals are collectively judged, sorted, and selectively incorporated into the
consensual but ever evolving scientific worldview. In the process, individual
knowledge is gradually converted into generally accepted ‘’SOCIAL’’ knowledge.
Science is organized into content disciplines for specialization, yet the there
are many new integrated fields (ex. Oceanography).
6. Nature Of Science And Scientific Spirit
• The nature of science refers to the underlying tendencies and unspoken assumptions that guide the action of
scientists, as individuals and as part of a larger cultural group, in shaping the knowledge that science produces.
Scientific inquiry refers to actions involved in scientists' pursuit of knowledge. The ultimate purpose of science is to
understand and explain the physical world using empirical methods. Empirical Methods – means knowledge is
grounded in observations and experimentation and not opinions and sensations.
• Spirit of science is one of the important components of science education theory. It not only directly affects the level of
science education, but also indirectly affects the selection, education and evaluation of scientific researchers, and the
development of science and technology in a country or region. Although more than a century ago, the researchers
began to discuss the topic of spirit of science. However, to date, the research of the definition, attribute, structural
model and its characteristics of the spirit of science has not yet made a breakthrough. Based on the detailed literature
review, the related theoretical analysis and the research of the structural model of the scientific spirit, this paper puts
forward the new definition, the attribute and the establishment of the structural model of the spirit of science, and
analyses the match the situation from new structural model of the spirit of science and the scientific nature published
by the American Society for the Advancement of Science in fields such as Artificial Intelligence(AI). The results of this
study are of great significance for raising the level of scientific education and cultivating future scientific researchers,
enhancing their motivation.
7. • The scientific spirit first calls for definition, or at least for description; for spirit is atmospheric
and elusive and always difficult of definition, refusing to be caught and caged within the hard
and fast limits of verbal lines. Yet the phrase stands for a method and temper of study the
nature of which is distinctly felt and is sharply contrasted with some other types of mind. We
shall therefore first describe the scientific spirit and then make some applications of it to
theological study and teaching, for the ‘Society’.