This session could have been an advanced session, discussing “Birth of science in Europe”. But i felt that “What is science?” is deserves more pondering than was done in the previous session. Sadly, since i am writing this 3-4 days after the session (procrastination), not all of the wonderful details could be recalled.
Recap
We started by each one (except the instructor) recounting the work submitted as Assignment #1 – Identify 3 controversial issues circulating on WhatsApp/Facebook/Twitter and analyze them. It was very exciting to see the topics they found out and wrote about. More on this in a later post.
A recap followed, and it was further asked, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much does each one agree with whats been going on in the class. One mentioned that individual sessions make more logical sense than the whole thing put together. While another one said the opposite was true. Someone also said that no session was really conclusive over what we are doing, trying to go to, achieve. I too wonder, is this discovery thing going on too long? Is it the right way to approach such a complicated subject with little or no domain knowledge (speaking of the facilitator) and only using this ‘frugal discovery’ technique? I don’t know. I also worry keeping students in this ‘grey area’ too much might make them loose all interest.
As of the original question of 1-10 scale, no answers. Poor souls were so confused they seem to have forgotten the in-between numbers!
What is science?
Again, the elusive question that was asked before but didn’t evolve much. An interesting discussion began. We were lucky that an new student V popped in just then! And in no time joined in the lively discussion (hope the spirit remains for the remaining of the course by someone’s god’s grace). This fresh soul dropped a bomb within the discussion which was bantering around the usual – ‘science is a tool to find truth’, ‘pseudoscience is so because there’s no proof’, ‘asking questions is science’, and so on.
V mentioned that he saw a video by a cult in Gujarat which had ‘proven’ (V’s words) that earth was not round or flat but was a mountain with slopes on either sides. It was so damn interesting but sadly i forget the remaining description. He drew what the cult claimed on the whiteboard. Now how do you handle that – i asked about. It was dumbfounding, but we in some ways needed this – a shake up. What is science if you cant talk logically your way through to the other person, and none of us could in that moment. All it shows is that we are still very naive in that area.
The question, coming back from fantasy, was – how do you know if something is true unless you have done it yourself? MG mentioned Faraday’s experiments proved somethings, but it was countered by asking if she had herself either witnessed it or done it first hand? Aren’t we in the believing business again? The only question remains then that we either believe in things written in scriptures or passed down as non-mistakable concepts or we believe in people who have written books/media/talks/teaching about some remote others (scientists) who claim to have done experiments to ‘prove‘ some concepts. So is it not interesting that all of the current knowledge of science is based on hardly a fraction percentage of human population’s efforts (scientists), same as how scriptures and traditions were made/initiated (by sages, saints, etc) ? What could be the difference then between science and traditional knowledge?
So what is the nature of science? RR mentioned that F=ma is proven to work on earth, but as a counter doesn’t Einstein modify this formula at speeds approaching that of light? SV expressed that the biggest surprise to her was when she came into 11th standard and was told in science that there are no orbits in an atom, but orbitals in 3D space. Everyone somehow thundered with a ‘yes’ to it, as if a universal truth always known but never articulated was mentioned for the first time. I realized i had no memory about the difference between orbits and orbitals (because this was probably from a mugged up chapter designed to be forgotten after exams), so i kept mum, trying to appear wise and all. I thought why not wrestle the discussion to show off my science edge, so i mentioned a little about the confusing Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle which in layman terms says that one can’t get a fixed picturesque description of a subatomic particle because, by due to the wave-particle dual nature of particles it will always be a blur! So all the illustrations of atoms in their textbooks were not true, who knows if they are spheres or cones, they might as well be sticks and knots of strings! It was a great discussion.
So, if everything is updated and previous theories are dropped what are we doing? Can we be 100% certain about anything science says? So are we ‘best-guessing’ our way through the world and life and the universe? Here’s an interesting little clip from a sitcom in the US (and famous world over):
Wish we could continue it more, rev up the wonder engine. So we took a break with the lingering question – What to believe in if everything is an evolving belief after all?
Break
Unhappy that my last session’s pin hole image experiment failed, i had decided to do another experiment for the class. Ambitious (and crazy) as i am, i choose to do a Schlieren imaging setup. And needless to say, I had never done this before 😉 Here’s the inspiration:
But i didn’t have a parabolic mirror! So what to do? I figured out (through shear logic and some googling) that one can create an easy setup using 2 magnifying glasses. So just a day before the session, i got 2 magnifying glasses, put in some battery and LED connections as a small light source, arranged a rusted blade from an old pen knife and used my Pentax K-5 with Tamron 100mm Macro lens to make the following setup (bad drawing).
It seemed to work well the first time in my workshop and i was super delighted. I spent the remaining working day and night preparing a better rigid setup. Thought a webcam would be better than a camera, bought that but that didn’t work. Did a lot of prep, lens mounts and so on.
Next day arranged everything in class. Finally when it came to demonstrate in the class i realized that there was no soldering gun to show the streaks (English for the German word ‘Schlieren’). UB was kind enough to get hot coffee for the experiment (science has its costs but luckily it also has its patrons) but the vapors from it weren’t visible on the camera screen. KG tried to warm her hands by friction and placed it the path of light, that didn’t work either. All was total popat (Parrot in Hindi, slang equivalent to a flop show). Although the writing is short here, it took a full 1 hour to get to this stage in the class, while the students waited anxiously to see some science in action. It was a sad day for science education.
Conclusion
I somehow demonstrated that not only the facilitator didn’t have domain knowledge of ‘Society and Science’ (and hence preferred the ridiculous ‘frugal discovery’ method), he also couldn’t science properly. In retrospect, i know from my work at Small Design, whenever something is to be demonstrated, shyness overcomes the setup and it just refuses to work. So, need to better it and try again in some forthcoming session. Hope it wont be another disappointment. Fingers crossed (What a superstitious bugger?).
As of an understanding and appreciation of science, maybe this course falls way away from this essential foundation stone. Unfortunately one must turn towards the syllabus designed, on the interaction of science and society, despite an incomplete experience in basic sciencing.