What is This Thing Called Science?
Science has a complicated definition. There are many components to its
meaning, as well as exclusions and exceptions. What is science to one person might
hold a different meaning for another. In studying one scientist in-depth, I was able to
use his experiences and interactions within the realm of science to further cultivate my
own definition of the subject.
The scientist that I chose to read about is American paleontologist Michael
Novacek. He wrote a memoir called Time Traveler: In Search of Dinosaurs and Ancient
Mammals from Montana to Mongolia (2002), in which he described how his childhood
fascination with fossils led him to become a paleontologist. While growing up in the Los
Angeles area, he was always fascinated with and curious about nature. He described
himself as a boy obsessed with crawling around in the mud, overturning rocks, and
scrutinizing objects under binoculars and microscopes (Novacek, 2002, p. 3). Childhood
trips to the Grand Canyon were his favorite because it taught him about how the
layering of rocks , stratigraphy, can explain how to date the earth. (Novacek , 2002, p.
4). Dinosaurs and saber-toothed tigers obviously are a fascinating subject for many
young boys, and Novacek was no exception. But unlike the average nine-year-old boy,
he laboriously pored over books and visited the Los Angeles County Natural History
Museum, memorizing the shapes of bones and the names of the ancient mammals that
used to rule over the Los Angeles land (Novacek, 2002, p. 9). He understood at a young
age that the study of fossils is closely tied with other subjects, such as geology and
history. It is even apparent from the title of his book, Time Traveler, that history
especially influences the discipline of paleontology. Most people would assume that
science excludes history and that history itself is a completely different subject, which
on a college campus would be housed in a building far away from the building that the
study of science would be found. That’s what I assumed. But for Novacek, a desire to
learn about the history of the world around him , or natural history, drove him to delve
deep into the study of fossils, and it was this inherent curiosity that caused him to
explore endlessly.
Novacek recalled the moment that led him to make science his life’s work and
become a paleontologist. Through all of his visits to the Natural History Museum in Los
Angeles, he learned about the wide variety of exciting animals that used to inhabit the
area (Novacek, 2002). When his family announced they were moving to Wisconsin,
through his research he already knew that Wisconsin was basically a desolate
wasteland for fossil hunters. Novacek (2002) was “a little apprehensive about leaving
what [he] viewed as real fossil country. It was a sentiment that foreshadowed a basic
inclination of the profession” (p. 26).However, while a teenager and out in the field with
his uncle, who was an amateur paleontologist, he discovered his first significant fossil,
that of a trilobite., about 280 million years old. His uncle was very excited and
announced that he would take it to the nearby Field Museum of Natural History in
Chicago. The mix of feelings Novacek felt then, excitement at the find and sadness at
the thought he would not be able to keep it, helped him decide what he wanted to
spend his life doing. Novacek (2002) wrote, “I realized that I had more passion for
collecting than for keeping fossils, as long as the specimens I found ended up in a good
collection, well cared for, safe, and easy for others to study...But I never forget that
trilobite discovery because it was the first time I found something that might be exciting
to others” (p. 28).
The thrill of the fossilized trilobite find help to illustrate the themes that most
clearly defined Michael Novacek’s definition of science: curiosity, exploration, and a
search for the truth. Once he became a paleontologist, he often brought up in his
writing that there were always previous theories that he was either trying to expand on
or to disprove (Novacek, 2002). His first professional experience in the field was with a
professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. The purpose of that trip was to
find evidence to explain why the Dimetrodon, a lizard from millions of years ago, had a
vertical fin on its back. There were plenty of theories out there that attempted to explain
why, such as describing the fin as a cooling device or a way to attract females
(Novacek, 2002, p. 39). The professor and his team, which included Novacek, did what
scientists do. They searched for evidence to either prove or disprove former theories,
made observations, recorded date and from that formed a conclusion.
Accuracy is also an important component of Novacek’s description of the field of
science, and he described in detail the painstaking work it took to correctly record the
intricacies of a fossil. He recalled an instance in graduate school in which he had to
write two pages describing a fossilized tooth that was no bigger than a grain of rice. He
wrote, rewrote, and edited for days before turning in this paper, and when he got it back,
it was “bloodied in red ink” (p. 117). However, it is not only accurately describing a find
that is science, but it is also explaining why that find fits into the existing scientific record
,and how it can be used to discover and describe relationships that exist in the natural
world.
Once he enrolled in college, Michael Novacek was exposed to the academic
world of science, which he used to further his own definition. Novacek (2002) described
that during these graduate seminars, “it was [his] first experience of real scientific
dialogue, argumentative give-and-take, and honest expressions of ignorance. In this
arena...even the most seasoned doctoral students frequently answered questions with
the response ‘I don’t know.’” But he explained that “such absence of hubris was well
justified. Time and time again [they] reviewed cases where theories had seemed so
strong, only to be toppled with one good insight, one more observation, or one more
fossil” (p. 93). This was important because it demonstrated that science is always
changing, and that even though through careful observation and interpretation of the
facts, a single new discovery could disprove everything that was thought to be true.
Using Novacek’s experiences, I was able to consider new ideas to include in my
own definition of science. As mentioned earlier, I excluded history from my personal
definition. However, after reading the memoir of a paleontologist, I realized that science
can be used to describe relationships not only today, but also in history. This
relationship can be between a dinosaur and a bird, which can be used to expand on
existing theories of evolution. Or the relationship can be about the amount of carbon
remaining in a bone and its age, which is also used to update the historical record.
With this in mind, I revisited my previous reflections on science. While I had not
spent too much time attempting to define the subject, I definitely had my own ideas on
what it was. The mere mention of the word used to make me recoil in terror. The only
classes I had ever dropped in college were a nutrition class and a science for the
elementary school teacher class. However, this was because I had a closed-minded
idea of what science was. I pictured race cars used to demonstrate physics concepts. I
thought of cell membranes and the process of carbohydrate breakdown in one’s body.
Through this class, and through reading about Novacek’s work, I opened my eyes to the
broader world that science actually encompasses. No matter what a person’s interest,
or how adamantly he or she claims to dislike science, there is a subject that would no
doubt be interesting to that person. As juvenile as it sounds, I never grew out of that
dinosaur phase that most elementary school kids go through at some point. I have also
always had a love for history, so it is amazing to me that I never considered that the two
subjects could be combined.
With this new information in mind, and an expanded view of the subject, I have
come to my own definition of science. Science is an exploration of and attempt to
understand the relationships that exist within the universe and its contents. Novacek
dedicated his life to exploring the terrain in search of new fossils, and then examining
these fossils to understand the relationship between the bones and the evolution of the
world’s species. Sometimes the fossil might not lead to any answers, but there was an
attempt of understanding a relationship between that fossil and evolutionary theory and
that makes it science.
References
Novacek, M. (2002). Time Traveler: In search of dinosaurs and ancient mammals from
Montana to Mongolia. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.