| Abstract from DBPedia | Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for scientific reasoning is tens of thousands of years old. The earliest written records in the history of science come from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age and later by the efforts of Byzantine Greek scholars who brought Greek manuscripts from the dying Byzantine Empire to Western Europe in the Renaissance. The recovery and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic inquiries into Western Europe from the 10th to 13th century revived "natural philosophy", which was later transformed by the Scientific Revolution that began in the 16th century as new ideas and discoveries departed from previous Greek conceptions and traditions. The scientific method soon played a greater role in knowledge creation and it was not until the 19th century that many of the institutional and professional features of science began to take shape; along with the changing of "natural philosophy" to "natural science". Modern science is typically divided into three major branches: natural sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, and physics), which study the physical world; the social sciences (e.g., economics, psychology, and sociology), which study individuals and societies; and the formal sciences (e.g., logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science), which study formal systems, governed by axioms and rules. There is disagreement whether the formal sciences are science disciplines, because they do not rely on empirical evidence. Applied sciences are disciplines that use scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as in engineering and medicine. New knowledge in science is advanced by research from scientists who are motivated by curiosity about the world and a desire to solve problems. Contemporary scientific research is highly collaborative and is usually done by teams in academic and research institutions, government agencies, and companies. The practical impact of their work has led to the emergence of science policies that seek to influence the scientific enterprise by prioritizing the ethical and moral development of commercial products, armaments, health care, public infrastructure, and environmental protection.科学（かがく、英: science, natural science、仏: science, sciences naturelles、独: Wissenschaft, Naturwissenschaft、羅: scientia）とは、一定の目的・方法の下でさまざまな事象を研究する認識活動、およびそこからの体系的知識。一般に、哲学・宗教・芸術などとは区別される。現在、狭義または一般の「科学」は、自然科学を指す。広義の「科学」は、全学術（またはそこから哲学を除いたもの）を指すこともある。
* （最狭義）自然科学・理学。
* （狭義）実験や観測に、または科学的・自然科学的方法に基づく定量的研究。およびその成果。
* （広義）自然科学、社会科学、人文科学などの総称。基礎科学・応用科学・理工学・工学・医療科学・形式科学などを含み得る。
* （最広義）学術・学問全般。体系化された実験・観測・探求・知識・経験などの総称。哲学を含み得る。 (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Science) |
