Observing Science: An Introduction | Observing Science

On the workings of science, its limitations, and its promise for a healthier world

Science is our demand that things make sense. We think of science as a modern discipline, systematic and skeptical in its approach and aiming at well-defined results and conceptual clarity. The data that inform science are argued about and interpreted in lecture halls and seminar rooms. Science is written down, following particular approaches, so that it can be replicable.

Much of science is done to prove or disprove ideas and test theories, but its discoveries—observations and evidence—are meant to be useful, although sometimes the uses are far-off. Science has always been a way to know nature, or in the biomedical and population health sciences, our subjects here, the contexts and forces that create the health of humans.

Read more here.