What Science Means to Me by Brandon

Science is the ultimate attempt at discovery. From discovering what makes soda explode, to discovering how to plant hundreds of thousands of trees in a day. From discovering how to create stable environments for experimentation, to discovering what make the body work. This is what science is to me.

Discovering what is true by making a hypothesis and then testing the hypothesis through repeatable and verifiable experiments. For example, last year my friend and I saw a You Tube video on Mentos and Diet Coke explosions. We didn’t believe that simply putting Mentos in Diet Coke could create the soda to explode. We decided we wanted to do it, so we asked our parents if we could test it and we did. But coming to the conclusion that it would work wasn’t good enough...we wanted to find out why it happens and would it work on other sodas.

Discovering and increasing knowledge based on facts about how the world works. Science is watching Discovery channel on topics like global warming and effects of Hurricane Katrina on the coastal shores of Louisiana. Did you know that there is an island 30 miles out at sea that lost all of its mangroves due to the hurricane? Did you know that it takes two men and two full days to plan 20 mangroves? However, a regular person came up with a creative idea - let go of mangrove seeds from a helicopter in order to plant 150,000 mangroves over the whole coastal shelf in one day.

Discovering how to conduct experiments including creating stable environments where you can do your discovery and document your findings. I love the network show Dexter. While I know it is only a TV show, it also tells the importance of having the right environment to completing experiments. Things like temperature, humidity, moods can alter the results of an experiment. Science is creating an environment where you can feel confident in the results of your experiment.

Discovering how to research and collect data in order to learn how different things work. While I have never dissected any living thing, I do enjoy learning through hands on application. For example, taking apart a computer or learning to play golf and improving my swing by better understanding how my body moves.

Discovering what is true, discovering and increasing knowledge, discovering how to conduct experiments, and discovering how to research, are the biggest parts of science to me. To me knowledge is gained through discovery and you have to do something first hand to really understand it.