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Scientists maintain that scientific investigation must adhere to the scientific method, a rigorous process for properly developing and evaluating natural explanations for observable phenomena based on reliable empirical evidence and neutral, unbiased independent verification, and not on arguments from authority or popular preferences. Science therefore bypasses supernatural explanations, it instead only considers natural explanations that may be falsifiable.
Fields of science are distinguished as pure science or applied science. Pure science is principally involved with the discovery of new truths with little or no regard to their practical applications. Applied science is principally involved with the application of existing knowledge in new ways, including advances in technology.
Mathematics is the language in which scientific information is best presented, often it is the only way to formulate and present scientific knowledge. Therefore whether mathematics is a science in itself or the framework of science is a matter of perspective.
Enzymes are molecules that manipulate other molecules — the enzymes' substrates. These target molecules bind to an enzyme's active site and are transformed into products through a series of steps known as the enzymatic mechanism. Some enzymes bind multiple substrates and/or release multiple products, such as a protease cleaving one protein substrate into two polypeptide products. Others join substrates together, such as DNA polymerase linking a nucleotide to DNA. Although these mechanisms are often a complex series of steps, there is typically one rate-determining step that determines the overall kinetics. This rate-determining step may be a chemical reaction or a conformational change of the enzyme or substrates, such as those involved in the release of product(s) from the enzyme.
Direct current-generated plasma (violet) enhances the growth of carbon nanotubes in this laboratory-scale PECVD apparatus. Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition processes utilize plasma to enhance chemical reaction rates. PECVD processing allows deposition at lower temperatures, which is often critical in the manufacture of semiconductors. The red color in the picture is black body radiation.
Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, astrobiologist, and highly successful science popularizer. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). He is world-famous for writing popular science books and for co-writing and presenting the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which was the most-watched PBS program until Ken Burns' The Civil War in 1990. A book to accompany the program was also published. He also wrote the novel Contact, the basis for the 1997 film of the same name starring Jodie Foster. During his lifetime, Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books. In his works, he frequently advocated scientific skepticism, humanism, and the scientific method.
