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Science is a rigorous, systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world. Modern science is typically divided into three major branches: natural sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, and physics), which study the physical world; the social sciences (e.g., economics, psychology, and sociology), which study individuals and societies; and the formal sciences (e.g., logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science), which study formal systems, governed by axioms and rules. There is disagreement whether the formal sciences are science disciplines, because they do not rely on empirical evidence. Applied sciences are disciplines that use scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as in engineering and medicine.

The history of scientific discipline spans the majority of the historical record, with the earliest written records of identifiable predecessors to modern science dating to Bronze Age Egypt and Mesopotamia from around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped the Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes, while further advancements, including the introduction of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, were made during the Golden Age of India. Scientific research deteriorated in these regions after the fall of the Western Roman Empire during the early middle ages (400 to 1000 CE), but in the Medieval renaissances ( Carolingian Renaissance, Ottonian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century) scholarship flourished again. Some Greek manuscripts lost in Western Europe were preserved and expanded upon in the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age and later by the efforts of Byzantine Greek scholars who brought Greek manuscripts from the dying Byzantine Empire to Western Europe in the Renaissance.

The recovery and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic inquiries into Western Europe from the 10th to 13th century revived " natural philosophy", which was later transformed by the Scientific Revolution that began in the 16th century as new ideas and discoveries departed from previous Greek conceptions and traditions. The scientific method soon played a greater role in knowledge creation and it was not until the 19th century that many of the institutional and professional features of science began to take shape, along with the changing of "natural philosophy" to "natural science".

New knowledge in science is advanced by research from scientists who are motivated by curiosity about the world and a desire to solve problems. Contemporary scientific research is highly collaborative and is usually done by teams in academic and research institutions, government agencies, and companies. The practical impact of their work has led to the emergence of science policies that seek to influence the scientific enterprise by prioritizing the ethical and moral development of commercial products, armaments, health care, public infrastructure, and environmental protection. ( Full article...)

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The first color movie of Jupiter from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows what it would look like to peel the entire globe of Jupiter, stretch it out on a wall into the form of a rectangular map, and watch its atmosphere evolve with time.
The first color movie of Jupiter from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows what it would look like to peel the entire globe of Jupiter, stretch it out on a wall into the form of a rectangular map, and watch its atmosphere evolve with time.
The cloud pattern on Jupiter is the visible system of colored cloud tops in the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter, remarkable for its stability. Astronomers have given names to parts of this pattern, using the word zone for the light stripes and belt for the dark stripes along various latitudes. The pattern and intensity of its belts and zones are famously variable, often changing markedly from one opposition to the next. The normal pattern of bands and zones is sometimes disrupted for a period of time, in events that astronomers call "disturbances". The longest-lived disturbance in recorded history was a "Southern Tropical Disturbance" (STropD) from 1901 until 1939, discovered by Percy B. Molesworth on February 28, 1901. It created a darkened feature over a range of longitudes in the normally bright Southern Tropical zone.

Selected biography

Richard Phillips Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was one of the most influential American physicists of the 20th century, expanding greatly upon the theory of quantum electrodynamics. As well as being an inspiring lecturer and amateur musician, also later he became a member of the panel which investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. For his work on quantum electrodynamics, Feynman was one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, along with Julian Schwinger and Shin-Ichiro Tomonaga.

Feynman was a keen and influential popularizer of physics in both his books and lectures. He is famous for his many adventures, detailed in the books Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, What Do You Care What Other People Think? and Tuva or Bust!. Posthumously, Feynman is often credited with helping catalyze the field of nanotechnology through his December 1959 talk called There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom. Richard Feynman was, in many respects, an eccentric and a free spirit.

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Science News

6 September 2023 – 2023 in archosaur paleontology
A dinosaur fossil, given the name Fujianvenator, is discovered in Fujian, China. The dinosaur has two legs and two other limbs, possibly wings, thereby giving insight into the evolution of birds. (NOS)
10 August 2023 –
American spaceflight company Virgin Galactic launches its first space tourism flight, Galactic 02. Antigua and Barbudan tourists Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers become the first mother-daughter duo and first people from the Caribbean to fly to space, while Mayers also becomes the youngest woman and second youngest person to fly to space. (AFP via France 24)
30 July 2023 –
Spanish government researchers identify 357 missing foreign fighters from the Spanish Civil War, specifically from the International Brigades, with most of the fighters from Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. (AP)
27 July 2023 – Climate change
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres declares that Earth has entered an "age of global boiling" as scientists confirm that this year's heat waves have been some of the hottest in recorded history. (The Guardian)
18 July 2023 – 2023 in archosaur paleontology, 2023 in paleomammalogy
In a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers present a 125-million-year-old fossil from central China depicting a mammalian Repenomamus robustus hunting a dinosaur, Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis, suggesting that small mammals may have actively hunted dinosaurs, not merely scavenged from them. (AP)
16 July 2023 –
At an Alzheimer's Association conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands, experts in Alzheimer's disease propose a new seven-point diagnostic scale that incorporates advancements in testing for key Alzheimer's-related proteins and aims to facilitate more personalized treatment strategies. (Reuters)

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