TY - BOOK AU - Derry, Gregory Neil TI - What science is and how it works SN - 9780691095509 U1 - 500 PY - 1999/// CY - Princeton PB - Princeton University press KW - Science N1 - Prologue: What is science? -- pt. I. Exploring the frontiers of science : how new discoveries are made in the sciences: A bird's eye view : the many routes to scientific discovery ; Nature's jigsaw : looking for patterns as a key to discovery ; New vistas : expanding our world with instrumentation ; Close, but no cigar : discrepancies as a trigger to discovery ; Ingredients for a revolution : thematic imagination, precise measurements and the motions of the planets -- pt. II. Mental tactics : some distinctively scientific approaches to the world: A universe in a bottle : models, modeling and successive approximation ; Thinking straight : evidence, reason and critical evaluation ; The numbers game : uses of quantitative reasoning -- pt. III. Larger questions : the context of science: Ultimate questions : science and religion ; More practical questions : science and society ; Difficult and important questions : science, values and ethics ; Questions of authenticity : science, pseudoscience and how to tell the difference ; Contentious questions : the shadowy borderlands of science ; Very abstract questions : the philosophy of science ; Questions of legitimacy : the postmodern critique of science -- pt. IV. Common ground : some unifying concepts in the sciences: Fleas and giants : some fascinating insights about area, volume and size ; The edge of the abyss : order and disorder in the universe ; Riding Blake's tiger : symmetry in science, art and mathematics ; The straight and narrow : linear dependence in the sciences ; The limits of the possible : exponential growth and decay ; In the loop : feedback, homeostasis and cybernetics -- Epilogue: So, what is science? ER -