Science
<p ><b>Science</b> (from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_language" title="Latin language" class="mw-redirect" >Latin</a> <i>scientia</i>, meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge" title="Knowledge" >knowledge</a> in the form of testable <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory" title="Scientific theory" >explanations</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictability" title="Predictability" >predictions</a> about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe" title="Universe" >universe</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science#cite_note-0" >[1]</a></sup>
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In an older and closely related meaning (found, for example, in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle" title="Aristotle" >Aristotle</a>), "science" refers to the body of reliable knowledge itself, of the type that can be logically and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reason" title="Reason" >rationally</a> explained (<i>see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science#History_and_philosophy" title="Science" >History and philosophy</a> below</i>).<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science#cite_note-1" >[2]</a></sup> Since <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_antiquity" title="Classical antiquity" >classical antiquity</a> science as a type of knowledge was closely linked to<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy" title="Philosophy" >philosophy</a>. In the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_modern_era" title="Early modern era" class="mw-redirect" >early modern era</a> the words "science" and "philosophy" were sometimes used interchangeably in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language" title="English language" >English language</a>. By the 17th century, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_philosophy" title="Natural philosophy" >natural philosophy</a> (which is today called "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_science" title="Natural science" >natural science</a>") was considered a separate branch of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy" title="Philosophy" >philosophy</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science#cite_note-2" >[3]</a></sup> However, "science" continued to be used in a broad sense denoting reliable knowledge about a topic, in the same way it is still used in modern terms such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_science" title="Library science" >library science</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_science" title="Political science" >political science</a>.
In modern use, "science" more often refers to a way of pursuing knowledge, not only the knowledge itself. It is "often treated as synonymous with ‘natural and physical science’, and thus restricted to those branches of study that relate to the phenomena of the material universe and their laws, sometimes with implied exclusion of pure mathematics. This is now the dominant sense in ordinary use."<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science#cite_note-3" >[4]</a></sup> This narrower sense of "science" developed as scientists such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Kepler" title="Johannes Kepler" >Johannes Kepler</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei" title="Galileo Galilei" >Galileo Galilei</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton" title="Isaac Newton" >Isaac Newton</a> began formulating <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_nature" title="Laws of nature" class="mw-redirect" >laws of nature</a></i> such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_laws_of_motion" title="Newton's laws of motion" >Newton's laws of motion</a>. In this period it became more common to refer to natural philosophy as "natural science". Over the course of the 19th century, the word "science" became increasingly associated with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method" title="Scientific method" >scientific method</a>, a disciplined way to study the natural world, including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics" title="Physics" >physics</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemistry" title="Chemistry" >chemistry</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology" title="Geology" >geology</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology" title="Biology" >biology</a>. It is in the 19th century also that the term <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientist" title="Scientist" >scientist</a></i> was created by the naturalist-theologian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Whewell" title="William Whewell" >William Whewell</a>to distinguish those who sought knowledge on nature from those who sought knowledge on other disciplines. The <i>Oxford English Dictionary</i> dates the origin of the word "scientist" to 1834. This sometimes left the study of human thought and society in a linguistic limbo, which was resolved by classifying these areas of academic study as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_science" title="Social science" >social science</a>. Similarly, several other major areas of disciplined study and knowledge exist today under the general rubric of "science", such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_science" title="Formal science" >formal science</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_science" title="Applied science" >applied science</a>.</p>