Centre for Science Stories

Determining How Volcanic Activity Fit into the Greater System of the Earth

sarahmd — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:40:11 +0000

The history of volcanoes, like most scientific knowledge, didn’t come nicely packed in one episode, or with the acceptance of a single author’s point of view. Rather, the process required a lot of exploration, argumentation and publication over many years.

In this story, we’re going to examine how naturalists went about studying volcanoes from 1760-1840. In this time period, many naturalists struggled to understand the natural world using different theoretical models. Much can be learned about how science works by understanding how they compiled evidence and interpreted it within these models.

Read Determining How Volcanic Activity Fit into the Greater System of the Earth.

Detection of Black Holes

sarahmd — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:22:23 +0000

The greatest scientific minds have struggled to understand black holes over the past century. In the face of many towering challenges, they now better understand these strange phenomena. Because black holes embody the most extreme physics in the Universe, significant efforts were required to understand and accept what theory had predicted. This story describes how scientists have studied and detected black holes throughout the last century. As you read, consider the role of theories in making predictions, and how scientists interpret and respond to them.

Read Detection of Black Holes: The Power of Robust Theory and Mathematics.

The Story of Cosmic Microwave Background

sarahmd — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:51:46 +0000

The recognition of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) has been hailed for many achievements, including being a triumphant agreement between theory and observation, being a key to understanding nucleosynthesis and being the point at which cosmology became an authentic “science.” Through decades of observation that agree with predicted values, the CMB is the most accurately measured and mapped stellar phenomenon known to scientists. However, despite all the attention given to the CMB, the history surrounding its early detection and later confirmation is generally distorted.

The story of the cosmic microwave background illustrates much about how science can be serendipitous and requires theory to inform both observations and conclusions.

Explore the full history of the Cosmic Microwave Background.

Imagination and Invention: The Story of Dark Matter

sarahmd — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:38:26 +0000

One of the most pressing problems facing today’s astronomers and cosmologists is that of ‘dark matter.’ The quest to understand dark matter is a relatively recent undertaking, but it illustrates how scientists will put forth ideas regarding unseen matter to account for observed celestial motion. Given the prominent role played by dark matter in modern astronomy and cosmology, it’s important to understand the history of dark matter. This story examines the eccentric scientists Fritz Zwicky and Vera Rubin and how they concluded that dark matter exists.

Explore the full history of dark matter.

Model Building: Piecing Together the Structure of DNA

sarahmd — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:43:01 +0000

Today we know that the blueprint for life lies in the nucleus of every cell in the human body. Often referred to DNA, its full name is deoxyribonucleic acid. We now know a lot about DNA, but it’s been a long journey to develop that understanding. James Watson and Francis Crick are the two names usually associated with determining the structure of DNA in 1953. They and Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in 1962 for that work. But efforts to understand the genetic material and the structure of DNA involved many more people over a long period of time. This story of the blueprint of life spans over 140 years of research.

Explore the full story of DNA.

Pendulum Motion, Time Measurement, and the Shape of the Earth

sarahmd — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:16:50 +0000

Galileo’s pendulum laws, developed in the early seventeenth century, were one of the foundations of modern science. Later in the seventeenth century, Christiaan Huygens refined Galileo’s pendulum laws and was the first to use these refined laws in creating a pendulum clock. In a wonderful example of the surprises that science brings, the construction of an accurate pendulum-regulated clock enabled the oblate shape of the Earth to be ascertained 350 years before satellites were launched.

Explore the full story of Christiaan Huygens and the pendulum.

The Realization of Global Warming

sarahmd — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:13:10 +0000

Perhaps better than any other issue, global warming exemplifies how scientific data and its interpretations affect the whole of society. Most politicians will state their view on climate change, and as such we tend to think of it as an entirely political issue. To legions of scientists, awareness of global warming has been a long and treacherous journey, fraught with years of data collection and interpretation. All of the ideas regarding global warming are well supported by science, but they can easily be taken out of context to be seen as non-scientific, causing confusion in the public’s mind on the subject. What follows is a short glimpse into how scientists determined that the Earth is warming.

Read the full story of the realization of global warming.

Understanding the Origins of Elements

sarahmd — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:27:44 +0000

One mid-winter day in 1953, astronomer Fred Hoyle charged into the Kellogg Radiation Laboratory at Caltech and proposed to do something that no physicist had yet accomplished. If successful, what he proposed doing might lead to understanding how the larger elements originated in the universe. Within a few months, Hoyle had some evidence to support his claim. His idea of Nucleosynthesis successfully furthered scientists’ understanding of how the universe worked on large and small scales, helped discriminate between the Big Bang and its competitor the Steady-State model, and furthered
knowledge concerning the microphysics of stellar interiors.

Read Personalities and Pride: Understanding the Origins of Elements.

The Discovery of Neptune

sarahmd — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:32:09 +0000

Neptune, the first planet to be found by mathematical prediction rather than empirical observation was discovered on September 23, 1846 by two astronomers and one mathematician working independently in different countries. The discovery of Neptune well illustrates important aspects of how science works and exemplifies the social nature of science. The discovery of Neptune popularized theoretical astronomy, which worked alongside observational astronomy to set the stage for twentieth century astronomy.

Read the full story of the discovery of Neptune.

Pendulum Motion: The Value of Idealization in Science

sarahmd — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:34:03 +0000

The pendulum is seemingly a very humble and simple device. Today it is mostly seen as an oscillating weight on old grandfather clocks or as a swinging weight on the end of a string used in school physics experiments. But despite its modest appearances, the pendulum has played a significant role in the development of Western science, culture and society, including the accurate measurement of time that utilized the experiments and observations made by Galileo Galilei in the seventeenth century.

Explore the full story of the Galileo Galilei and the pendulum.