Our Place in the Universe - II: The Scientific Approach to Discovery

Starting from Newton's times this follow-up to the author's Springer book Our Place in the Universe - Understanding Fundamental Astronomy from Ancient Discoveries addresses the question of our place in the Universe from astronomical physical chemical biological philosophical and social perspectives. Using the history of astronomy to illustrate the process of discovery the emphasis is on the description of the process of how we learned and on the exploration of the impacts of discoveries rather than on the presentation of facts. Thus readers are informed of the influence of science on a br oad scale. Unlike the traditional way of teaching science in this book the author begins by describing the observations and then discusses various attempts to find answers (including unsuccessful ones). The goal is to help students develop a better appreciation of the scientific process and learn from this process to tackle real-life problems.