Monday, November 28, 2011

Scientific Revolution Quotes

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men"
- Martin Luther King Jr.  

This quote was given by Martin Luther King Jr, a civil rights activist and clergyman during the 1960s in American. He spoke out against racial inequality, violence, and poverty through his many speeches and protests. What King wants to illustrate through this quote is that we must be moral and ethical and not get blinded by our scientific advancements. King was speaking out against the Vietnam war and the invention of missiles which had ability to kill thousands from a distance. Another example would be atomic bomb. On August 6, 1945, an atomic dropped over Hiroshima, Japan killed 90,000 to 160,000 people and wounded countless numbers of men, women, and children. Scientists worked for years to successfully create nuclear fission. However, they ended up creating a bomb which killed thousands. Martin Luther King Jr. is warning us not to advance with science and forget our morals. The scientific power he is speaking about is inventions and the spiritual power is not necessarily religious but also moral and ethical. When he says "we have misguided men" he is referring to the fact that we have become blinded by our achievements and we are forgetting human principles. 


I agree with Martin Luther King Jr.'s quote; I believe that before we advance in science we should always take into consideration the risks and long term affects. In a society where the latest, newest piece of technology is valued, we need to take a step back and examine the consequences objectively. 

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Scientific Method



The scientific method is a process by which scientists try to determine a cause and effect relationship using experimentation. Scientists today continue to use the scientific method as a way to answer questions about the natural world. The scientific method is an organized, logical sequence of steps that enables scientists to validate or disprove their hypothesis by experimenting, collecting and analyzing data, and then drawing conclusions. Before beginning, scientists state the problem. Then they gather background information on the problem. After learning about what they will study, scientists make an educated guess about what the results will be, also called a hypothesis. During the experimentation step, scientists accurately record data and observations. Then they analyse and draw conclusions about the data. Was their hypothesis correct? Scientists often repeat their experiment by formulating better a  hypothesis of confirming their old one. The scientific method is still used today because it ensures accurate and unbiased tests which enable scientists to answer questions about the natural world or make new discoveries.