Everyday Use ofScience

Contact information:

Abdelrahman Madani

(+20 114361 1112)

(abdelrahmanabbas@aucegypt.edu)

Mahitab Mahran

(+20 112237 2266)

(mahymahran@aucegypt.edu)

Mahmoud Ismail

(+20 111976 6583)

(mahmoud00@aucegypt.edu)

Adminstrative

Mission Statement

The purpose of this magazine is to inculcate recongnition of science’s interference in an ordinary citizen’s everyday life. It defines sci-entific thinking, whether one has to be a sci-entist to use it, and the scientific method. It gives a glimpse of past scientist who’ve left their footprints in the entity of science, and the participation of science in civic & cultur-al affairs, and economic productivity. Finally, the magazine will give an idea about the fu-ture of science -nanotechnology- and how it intends to change life as we know it.

What is scientific thinking and Why do

We need it?

An insight into the world of scientific thinking.

By: Mahitab Mahran

5

Do we have to be scientists in order to practice scientific think-ing?

The answer is no. Scientific thinking is merely a purposeful way of thinking that has the objective of enhancing the seeker’s knowl-edge. It is used to measure the validity of claims, and to be skeptical concerning the information we receive in everyday life. We measure whether these information are facts, claims or simply opinions.

Scientific thinking leads to discovery, innovation, problem-solving, and intellectual creativity. Additionally, the products of scientific thought have had such great value to humankind that the cognitive processes responsible for those products are important as well as inherently interesting (Klahr, 2000). In fact, scientific thinking has be-come the standard for rational thought, and seeking to understand rationality is what cognitive scientists do (Stanovich, 1999).

Do we already use scientific thinking?

Neil DeGrasse Tyson stated:

I think the, if it were natural to think scientifically, science as we cur-rently practice it would have been going on for thousands of years. But it hasn’t. It’s relatively late in the activities of a culture. Science as we now practice it…this is a relatively modern, that’s been going on for no more than 400 years. And you look at how long civilizations have been around, and you say, there’s a disconnect there.

Tyson argues that the use of scientific thinking is recent. But, how do you get Roman engineering, Egyptian pyramids, or organized agricul-ture without people thinking in a scientific manner?

“And it goes back even farther than that– you don’t get stone tools and cave paintings unless some proto-scientist spends a bit of time banging rocks together and experimenting with pigments” (Orzel) .

Science blogger Chad Orzel argues that scientific thinking has existed since the beginning of time, and it is in fact what makes us human. He says that an act so simple like solving a crossword puzzle constitutes scientific thinking. We look for clues, make a guess, then check if our guess is correct.

MA

HR

AN

6

Speaking of Puzzles!

Try to fill in the missing numbers.

Use the numbers 1 through 25 to complete the equations.

Each number is only used once.

Each row is a math equation. Each column is a math equation.

Remember that multiplication and division are performed before addition and subtraction.

7

MA

HR

AN

How do we use scientific thinking in everyday life tasks unknowingly?

If you’ve ever cooked without a recipe, you have the mental skills needed to be a scientist. You come up with new dishes in essentially the same manner as you solve scientific problems: you make a guess that cooking two particular ingredients together in some way will be de-licious, then you do it, and taste to see if you’re right. That’s the scientific method right there, and millions of people have done it at some point in their lives.

If you have ever repaired anything– a car, a dripping faucet, a blown fuse– you have the mental skills needed to be a scientist. You fix problems in everyday life in the same way that you attack scientific problems: you make a guess as to the source of the problem, you try the ap-propriate solution for that sort of problem, and see if it worked. That’s how science works, and millions of peo-ple make their living doing this without ever realizing that they’re thinking scientifically.”

Now we have to ask ourselves: Why should we study scientific thinking?To explain the “origins of mind” of course!

In short, we study scientific thinking in order to dis-cover: (1) the nature of a form of innovative, complex reasoning so fundamental to the Western intellectual tradition, (2) the nature of the everyday reasoning that characterizes our species, and (3) the emerging nature of the child’s ability to think. In this article, research spurred by each of these pursuits will be evaluated for what it contributes to our understanding of scientific thought.

Leaving their Mark

Scientists throughout history have been the ones who tell us what is new in our world and uni-verse. They have been discovering new theories and concepts. In this article, we will be discussing and talking about some of the scientists whose discoveries have defined science as we know it.

By: Mahmoud Ismail

ISM

AIL

1. Aristotle (384–322 BC):

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist born in the Macedonian city of Stagirus, in 384 BC. At eighteen, he joined Plato’s Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of 37. His writings cover many subjects including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aes-thetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, linguistics, politics and government. He tutored Alexander the Great between 356 and 323 BCE. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of many of his hundreds of books. For example, in physics, Aristotle proposed a fifth element, aether, in addition to the four proposed original-ly (Earth, Water, Air, Fire). Aether is the divine substance that makes stars and planets. In biology, Aristotle called ‘animals with blood’ and ‘animals without blood’. Animals with blood were divided into live-bearing (humans and mammals), and egg-bearing (birds and fish). Animals with-out blood are insects, crustacean (divided into non-shelled – cephalopods – and shelled) and testacies (mollusks). Ar-istotle has been easily a scientist who studied and made contribution in every aspect of science.

ISMA

IL

Galileo was an Italian physicist, mathematician, engineer, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the scientific revolution during the Renais-sance. His achievements include improvements to the telescope. Galileo has been called the “father of modern observational astronomy”, the “father of modern phys-ics”, the “father of science”, and “the father of modern science”. Galileo is credited with the invention of the first thermometer in 1606. He made the telescope fa-mous. His discoveries with the telescope led him to dis-cover that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the solar system. Galileo was an amazing scientist whose discoveries changed the course of science.

2. Galileo

(1564 – 1642):

ISM

AIL

3. Sir Isaac Newton. (1642-1726):

Newton was an English physicist and mathemati-cian. Newton was a great scientist who made great discov-eries in many areas like optics, telescope, mechanics and Gravitation. The most popular story about Sir Isaac Newton is the story of how the theory of gravitation came to him, after being hit on the head with a falling apple.

Newton worked on his study of optics over a period of years, investigating about the refraction of light by a glass prism. After years of experiments he finally discovered the fact that color is an intrinsic property of light and that light was composed of particles. He also discovered the three laws of motion. First, a stationary body will stay stationary unless an external force is applied to it. Second, force is equal to mass times acceleration, and a change in motion is proportional to the force applied and third, for every ac-tion, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So we can say that newton was a very brilliant scientist and we must be thankful to him (and his apple) for many discoveries.

E G R A V I T Y W S L M N W O

I X U Z R W X Q Y U O I Y F D

U L P M O A P E K P W P S G T

C Z I E E C C L Q E S K S Y C

P Y N K R N O Q A R E M L G Y

G M E U E I D W C N B F Q O D

C T J I O H M H Z O E Q Q L N

E O C M N E E E J V N T Q O E

I S R A M M L S N A E U S I W

G V N K I B P I V T J Q S B T

Q W N S Y A H B L N K T P I O

V E T Q C U D H D A X D L O N

L R K E I X K R L E G Y F J X

Y M U N E W M D P D C I Z F P

W Q B Y N I E T S N I E L L A

Find the following words!

BIOLOGY CHEMISTRY EINSTEINEXPERIMENT GALILEO GRAVITYMARS NEWTON PLANETSSCIENCE SPACE SUNSUPERNOVA

WORD SEARCH!

Personal Decisions and Science

By: AbdelRahman Madani

MA

DA

NI

Each and every day we are faced with situ-ations in life that require us to make choices, thus making deci-sions is something we do everyday, but have you ever thought of science while making these decisions? The answer is no. Simply because little, or no one thinks deeply while taking a choice of whether to ride the bus or take your car, or whether to walk your dog or visit your grandparents. On the contrary, it does not really require deep thinking as I mentioned above, and this is the point of it all. You use science unconsciously in everything in your life, and in the next coming paragraphs you’ll know how and there-fore will have your mind broadened in every decision you do next. Meanwhile, your everyday choices that are influenced by science could vary through various different ways.

Simple decisions a decision that does not require you a lot of time to think about it are one, noting that it still involves science. Simple decision vary like choosing what to wear, what movie to watch etc. While choosing what to wear, do people grab a scien-tific thinking book and start applying or search the Internet to seek help? In most cases, people will not do that.

MA

DA

NI

Usually, the majority of people

will choose what to wear

by taking in consideration

the season of the year, the weather

of the day, and where they might be going.

This does not usually take time, but thinking about it, you can see where scientific thinking is taking place. You use reasoning to convince yourself of the climate thus focusing on the natural world and you will certainly rely on evidence while using testable ideas that if you don’t wear heavy clothes you’ll eventually feel cold. Therefore, these factors are all outcomes of a scientific behavior.

Another example is deciding on what movie to watch, this depends on multiple factors including your mood, whether you’re accompanied with people or not and your genre taste. In fact, all these factors are influencing your choice at the end whether you like it or not. So the thinking process that takes place in deciding what movie to watch is scientific for many reasons. First, it requires critical thinking. So if other people with different tastes accompany you, synthe-sizing your own perceptions in order to create satis-faction among all is fully scientific. This shows your understanding of other opinions and your reflection upon them.

16

Another example of a simple decision that requires scientific thinking is choosing what to eat. You don’t take notes and jot down the reasons why you will choose to eat a burger over pizza; however you might consider eating pizza because you just ate burger last weekend or so. What I am trying to say is you process the operation of scientif-ic thinking all in your mind without noticing, you provide reasonable reasons and this is how scientific is your simple choices.

On the other hand, there are decisions that are more difficult than choosing what to wear or what to eat. These decisions are just as, if not more, scientific as the simple decisions; however, decisions that seem to be a bit more difficult are those that require a deeper level of thought. Examples of difficult decisions are choosing what college to attend, what job would be best, whether to start a family or not. The reason why these are big decision is because they are often always life-changing decisions that shape who we are and our future, thus requires deep thought.

MA

DA

NI

Let’s try to solve this crossword!

Across 4. The fruit that inspired newton 7. a place where every thing floats 8. a natural science which is the study of celestial objects 9. the father of modern science

Down 1. a natural phenomenon by which all physical bodies attract each other 2. explosion that briefly outshines an entire galaxy 3. what every creature needs to live 5. developed the general theory of relativity 6. is the natural science that involves the study of matter 10. a process that every scientist goes through

18

There are often two kinds of people when it comes to scientifically thinking and its correct use. A quick satisfactor and a maximizer, the difference between the two is simple. In case of buying a camera for instance, the quick satisfacicer will often spend the time thinking on buying it, and once he is in the store and finds the good that will meet his criteria, he will make his decision to buy it, and they are satisfied. In this situ-ation, there is little science behind his thinking, the quality of the good is the scientific approach of what he is asking for, and will be the reason why s/he might reject other cameras.

MA

DA

NI

19

On the other hand, the maximizer uses scientific thinking correctly and fully. A maximizer will often look for the best out of the best to make the optimal decision. So even if he sees a camera that meets their needs, expectations, and requirements, he will not make a decision until after they’ve searched every other option there and personally examined all the cameras that has met their criteria so he is sure he has made the best possible choice out of his decision.

In both scenarios, the way they are thinking is 100% scientific, dependent on reasoning and questioning. Personal decisions, from very simple to very complicated, can feel more instinctive than scientific because we are designed to process information so quickly, but believe it or not science influences your everyday choices.

MA

DA

NI

The Future of Science: Nanotechnology

How science is changing the face of mankind.

By: Mahitab Mahran

21

The promises of science are

extraordinary. One field in which

scientists are particularly interest-

ed, and which gained a lot of

media attention and the eye of

investors is Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is the ma-nipulation of atoms on the nanoscale (10 power -9). This means that scientists are changing the way atoms behave. It is literally changing humanity as we know it.

You are using nanotechnology in your everyday life whether you know it or not. Nano-chips in your phone, nanoparticles in your shampoo, or preservatives in the food you ingest are all examples of nanotechnology’s presence in our everyday routine.

Nanotechnology has already revolutionized the fields of computer and communications. Nano-chips/particles implanted in cell phones or hardware devices have proven themselves to be compact and very efficient.

One way which is currently being used is the use of gold nanoparticles in the treatment of cancer. These nanoparticles carry the anticancer drugs staight to the can-cer without having to go through the difficulties ordinary methdods experience.

MA

HR

AN

22

MA

HR

AN

Further testing promises a revolution in the field of medicine. Scientists intend to use nanoparticle modifica-tions in order to facilitate and overcome difficulties in the transmission of drugs to the human brain. Such difficulties include overcoming the blood brain barrier, which does not allow the passing of large molecules. These modifi-cations will also make the diffusion of the drugs into the cells easier, faster, and generally more efficient.

Moreover, scientists are searching for ways to read the hu-man mind!

How Unbelievable is that!

Such arguments would have been considered impos-sible years ago, but researchers are actually studying brain mapping, which consists of signals which show the emo-tions we feel, and are using it to develop methods to read minds.

Also, the topic of transhumanism raises controver-sial opinions. Transhumanism is scientists’ attempts to improve human genes and eradicate mortality. But have we gone too far? Are scientists manipulating something they’re not meant to explore? Surely, religious parties will never consent to such proposals. I guess it is safe to say that we don’t know how far people of science are willing to go, nor what the results might be..

23

Try to find your way out!

Economic productivity and the good use of science

By: AbdelRahman Madani

25

Usually in an economical world, it might be more obvious that it definitely requires deeper thought in order to make the right deal or so. The use of the scientific method through thinking is more practical in economics than in personal decision-making. In fact, it is more coherent because it demands scientific thinking usually through experiment, skills, posing a question, observing, analyzing, validating a claim, predicting, thinking critically, collect-ing data etc. We can tell through these the correct display of the scientific method.

So how does this apply to economic market and its produc-tivity? Usually all people in an active market will want to be ahead of others in their era, so this will often always require them to do lots of work. That is, they will start predicting the market, asking questions when producing their products, analyzing, evaluating and thinking scientifically in order to improve. An easy example where a coworker sets to produce certain amount of a good in a certain amount of time, he is faced with a problem that will pre-vent him from producing the norm. How will he respond? At this moment, he will not be thinking scientifically in his mind; how-ever, it is certainly and fully scientific just the way he is thinking about a problem, and trying to resolve it. He will eventually form a hypothesis and select one variable and test it and come out with a solution.

Businessmen solve big problems with big data, fueling da-ta-driven innovation and decision-making at the world’s top com-panies and organizations, and this is the definition of the scientific approach.

MA

DA

NI

26

This is my interviewee from Austria whom I asked about her views on the scientific method and its use in her everyday life. When asked whether she notices her use of scientific thinking everyday, she replied by saying “ No, while I take my everyday simple deci-sions, I do not pause and think that I am interpreting my thoughts scientifically; however, I believe that it is spontaneous, and I be-lieve in the scientific method which is present in everything we do in our life.”

This is completely true because in our daily life we tend to use science spontaneously as she mentions, and I personally think scientific thinking is such a seamless way of thinking. In fact, this is what makes it unique in approaching the validity of claims.

MA

DA

NI

27

How about a last puzzle?

28

Solution to Puzzle 1

29

References

Glei, Jocelyn. “Don’t Overthink It.” 99U. Behance, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.

Kuhn, Deanna. What Is Scientific Thinking and How Does It Develop? (n.d.): n. pag. Handbook of Childhood Cogni-tive Development, 2010. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.

Orzel, Chad. “Everybody Thinks Scientifically.” Uncertain Principles. Science Blogs, 8 Mar. 2011. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.

Rosemary Rosser. Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. Hoboken: Wiley, 2005. Credo Reference. Web. 14 Novem-ber 2014.

Silverman, Jacob. “Nanotechnology Cancer Treatments.” HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.

EUOS: E VERYDAY USE OF SCIENCE