Portal:Science
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Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
The earliest roots in the history of science can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age.
The recovery and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic inquiries into Western Europe from the 10th to 13th century revived "natural philosophy", which was later transformed by the Scientific Revolution that began in the 16th century as new ideas and discoveries departed from previous Greek conceptions and traditions. The scientific method soon played a greater role in knowledge creation and it was not until the 19th century that many of the institutional and professional features of science began to take shape; along with the changing of "natural philosophy" to "natural science".
Modern science is typically divided into three major branches: natural sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, and physics), which study the physical world; the social sciences (e.g., economics, psychology, and sociology), which study individuals and societies; and the formal sciences (e.g., logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science), which study formal systems, governed by axioms and rules. There is disagreement whether the formal sciences are science disciplines, because they do not rely on empirical evidence. Applied sciences are disciplines that use scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as in engineering and medicine.
New knowledge in science is advanced by research from scientists who are motivated by curiosity about the world and a desire to solve problems. Contemporary scientific research is highly collaborative and is usually done by teams in academic and research institutions, government agencies, and companies. The practical impact of their work has led to the emergence of science policies that seek to influence the scientific enterprise by prioritizing the development of commercial products, armaments, health care, public infrastructure, and environmental protection. (Full article...)
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- ...that the gestation period of the ring-tailed lemur (pictured) is approximately 146 days?
- ...that the Late November 2006 Nor'easter caused winds up to 80 mph (70 knots) in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the earliest snowfall on record for Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina, as well as Charleston, South Carolina's only occurrence of thundersnow on record?
- ...that the Rufous-crowned Sparrow, a medium-sized sparrow of the southwestern United States and Mexico, has a subspecies endemic to the Todos Santos Islands that has not been seen since the 1970s?
- ...that the Christmas 1994 Nor'easter led to wind gusts of 99 mph/86 knots in Massachusetts, and briefly formed an eye?
- ...that the Northern Red-legged Frog is a near-threatened species, whose male defends breeding pond territory with nocturnal displays?
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Science News
- 23 June 2022 –
- Scientists discover the largest known bacterium, Thiomargarita magnifica, in the mangroves of the Guadeloupe archipelago in Lesser Antilles. It is up to 2 cm (3/4 inch) long. (France 24)
- 21 June 2022 –
- Nuri, South Korea's first locally-developed orbital launch vehicle, launches for a second time from the Naro Space Center in Goheung County, South Jeolla, with a satellite payload of 1,500 kg (3,300 lb). The launch was successful, with all of the satellites being put onto the 700 km (430 mi) Sun-synchronous orbit. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
- 1 June 2022 –
- Scientists from the University of Western Australia announce that a seagrass meadow of the species Posidonia australis covering 200 square kilometres (77 sq mi), approximately three times the size of Manhattan, found off of Western Australia's Shark Bay, actually belongs to one plant, making it the largest known plant on Earth. (BBC News)
- 12 May 2022 –
- A team of scientists at the Event Horizon Telescope release the first ever image of [[Sagittarius A;12 May 2022 –
- ]], the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. (BBC News)
- Researchers from the University of Florida announce that plants have been grown on lunar soil, collected by Apollo missions, for the first time ever. (AP)
- 16 April 2022 – Chinese space program
- Chinese astronauts Ye Guangfu, Wang Yaping and Zhai Zhigang of the Shenzhou 13 spacecraft land successfully in Inner Mongolia after spending 183 days in space. During the spaceflight, Wang Yaping became the first Chinese woman to perform a spacewalk. (Al Jazeera)
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