EAS 1601 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Femtometre, Systems Theory, Reductionism
14 Sep 2017
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Key: scientific understanding is fluid, constantly changing, tests keep getting run even after a hypothesis is supported (theory). It is also iterative and subject to external scrutiny. Theory: an idea about how things work, or how things happened. Always provisional: can range from very well-supported to (cid:448)ery sket(cid:272)hy (ha(cid:448)e(cid:374)(cid:859)t (cid:271)ee(cid:374) (cid:449)ell tested) The importance of scale size of the universe: 15 billion light years (~10^26 meters) size of a proton: 1 femtometer (~10^-15 meters) Age of the universe: 15 billion years lifetime of a bacterial cell: hours (~10^-4 years) (cid:858) edu(cid:272)tio(cid:374)ist(cid:859) (cid:448)ersus (cid:858)syste(cid:373)s(cid:859) thi(cid:374)ki(cid:374)g. Systems thinking: emphasizes the connections between components of a system: stresses the understanding of natural phenomena in their broader context, not just ingredients but their connections and higher-level feedbacks are emphasized. Meant to give a number that represents the probability that we will find intelligent life beyond the earth.
