Poll: Is Biology A Science?

[similar.squirrel]

Discaimer: I think it is.

Anyway. My girlfriend takes the XKCD stance, whereby she claims that mathematics and physics are the only 'true' sciences, and that all aspects of biology are more akin to an art. Strangely, she seems to think that genetics is exempt, but things like ecology and taxonomy definitely do not fall within the realm of science.
She thinks the same applies to psychology and sociology, though I'd be inclined to agree sometimes, given that those subjects don't deal with phenomena that are immediately or easily quantifiable.

I agree insofar as all biology has a chemical basis, and all chemistry has a physical basis, but still. The systematic study of any phenomena, to me, is a science. We could study anatomy in terms of physics [biophysics dabbles with this], but it seems inherently ridiculous to discredit an entire branch of science because it uses a different set of vocabulary.

Thoughts?


EDIT: Be civilized. I don't appreciate anybody being called an idiot, much less somebody I'm close to. I was asking for an opinion regards this specific question, not my choice of partner.

 

[Rascarin]

The way I see it - if you get to wear a lab coat, you're doing science.

 

[oppp7]

Everyone is going to repeat my opinion, so I'll start off by saying we need to define art.

Anyways, subsections of other sciences mean they are still science. If A is a B and all Bs are C then A is also a C.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Biology is a science, yes. XKCD was talking about some weird sort of "purity", with the less pure sciences only applying to certain areas of the more pure ones. Mathematics applies to everywhere, physics applies everywhere in our universe, biology applies to life on our planet, sociology applies to human life, etc.

Biology follows certain rules, so it can be studied scientifically. You can't crossbreed a hamster and an oak tree, but you can crossbreed a wolf and a dog. Even if all our knowledge of biology was limited to that one hard fact, it'd be a science, just a very limited one.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Oh, god, yes. It's as hard a science as any of the other physical sciences, and your girlfriend must be hideously closed-minded to see otherwise.

Indeed. To elaborate for the sake of the OP; biology, as most (if not all) physical sciences relies on objective, empirical data and it's analysis. To suggest otherwise is indeed rather silly.

And I doubt that XKCD comic about that was serious, more like an illustration of the elitism and rivalry in the academic world.

 

[Jnat]

"Yes, 100%(13)"
This result pleases me.

 

[TheTejs]

ahem...
Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") is an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world.

Yes... yes it is.

 

[dolgion]

Well I would say that it is a science, but one that builds on top of the observations and insights of the more fundamental ones.

Weird thing people always look at sciences in separation. I mean, they all study one and the same thing - the world and nature. Every science just takes a look from a different angle with a different focus.

 

[Sun Flash]

Yes.

I'd say, like you think, Biology is a subset of chemistry, which itself is a subset of Physics. But it's definitely science, just with a narrower field of expertise..

as for sociology and psychology, again, I agree with oyu on the whole quantifiable thing. And I'm a student of "social and political science".

EDIT: Out of interest, I decided to wiki science. apparently "Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") is an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world."

so I revoke my early agreement of sociology not being a science.


gief lab coat naow plox.

 

[mireko]

Of course it is. It's empirically verifiable, which is a lot more than you can say for certain others [small](*COUGH COUGH* STRING THEORISTS*COUGH*)[/small].

 

[similar.squirrel]

Well I would say that it is a science, but one that builds on top of the observations and insights of the more fundamental ones.

Weird thing people always look at sciences in separation. I mean, they all study one and the same thing - the world and nature. Every science just takes a look from a different angle with a different focus.

I find that strange as well. It's necessary, though. You could even look at it in terms of speciation =P.

 

[TheTaco007]

Discaimer: I think it is.

Anyway. My girlfriend takes the XKCD stance, whereby she claims that mathematics and physics are the only 'true' sciences, and that all aspects of biology are more akin to an art. Strangely, she seems to think that genetics is exempt, but things like ecology and taxonomy definitely do not fall within the realm of science.
She thinks the same applies to psychology and sociology, though I'd be inclined to think the same sometimes, given that those subjects don't deal with anything that is immediately quantifiable.

I agree insofar as all biology has a chemical basis, and all chemistry has a physical basis, but still. The systematic study of any phenomena, to me, is a science. We could study anatomy in terms of physics [biophysics dabbles with this], but it seems inherently ridiculous to discredit an entire branch of science because it uses a different set of vocabulary.

Thoughts?

Edit: I would go as far as to say that the study of literature is a subset of anthropology. Not the methodology, of course.

I know the XKCD comic you're talking about, and while it's true, that doesn't mean that things like biology and psychology aren't sciences. They're just more specific sciences. It's like how math works. Addition and subtraction are the only real operations in the world, and everything else just builds off of that. Does that mean that Algebra and Calculus aren't math? No, of course not.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Your GF is joking about I'm sure... hell, I used to be like that as well (well, when I was 12) until I discovered the joys of studying creepy-crawlies (entomologist). Anyway, taken literally 'science' is just Latin for 'knowledge'. Meh...

Still, these days, science is so interdisciplinary that physics is applied to biological studies in a lot of cases (e.g. single molecule spectroscopy, TEM and so on... god that shit bores me...)

The way I see it - if you get to wear a lab coat, you're doing science.

BTW, *this* is my lab coat:

Spoiler

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Biology being compared to bullshit like sociology? Blasphemy. It is indeed a science, and a damn valuable one at that.

 

[conflictofinterests]

Heyheyhey, don't bag on Psychology, at least. Sociology should get more of a pass too. Their evidence both lean heavily into the quantifiable, even if a fair amount has to be qualitative. I hang out in the Anthropology department so I KNOW what qualitative evaluations of phenomena look like. They're called ETHNOGRAPHIES. And even Anthro isn't purely qualitative. You do get forensic anthropology (and if anyone mentions Bones I will strangle them with their intestines)

EDIT: Also, FUCK ETHNOGRAPHIES. SAY WHAT'S IMPORTANT AND MOVE THE FUCK ON.

As for Biology, there's almost nothing that needs to be qualitatively expressed to be accounted for in it, therefore it is a very scientific science.

Also, I don't think math counts as science. I think it counts as math. It is used in science, and various other pursuits.

 

[Snake Plissken]

Yes. I hate to break it to you, but your girlfriend isn't the sharpest crayon in the box. I mean that in the least offensive way possible. I highly doubt the author of XKCD would even take his own statement seriously. Your girlfriend doesn't get to pick and choose what is and is not science based on her random assumptions. It's fine to prefer one over the other. I have several friends who prefer math and physics over geology, biology, meterology, astronomy, etc., yet they still recognize them as sciences. I firmly believe that people who discredit "less concrete" sciences are lazy, because without application, they're useless. There is nothing exciting about doing math for the sake of doing math, and it isn't terribly useful unless it applied to a phenomenon.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Your GF is joking about I'm sure... hell, I used to be like that as well (well, when I was 12) until I discovered the joys of studying creepy-crawlies (entomologist). Anyway, taken literally 'science' is just Latin for 'knowledge'. Meh...

Still, these days, science is so interdisciplinary that physics is applied to biological studies in a lot of cases (e.g. single molecule spectroscopy, TEM and so on... god that shit bores me...)

The way I see it - if you get to wear a lab coat, you're doing science.

BTW, *this* is my lab coat:

Spoiler

Tell me, what kind of career could I expect to get with an entomology degree? I love insects, and I really don't want to end up designing pesticides for big agriculture. There doesn't seem to be a great many jobs dedicated to maintaining biodiversity in that sector.
Perhaps something to do with orchards and pollination? I love botany as well, so that would be ideal.

Nice lab-coat, by the way. We were explicitly told not to 'deface' ours, but maybe biochemists are just inherently uptight.

 

[Syphous]

Of course it is.

100% Yes with 48 votes. lol