Scientific concepts

It is hardly possible in chemistry to introduce a contrast between elements and simple bodies, as the definition of element since Lavoisier is based on the simple body. It seems to me to be even less apt simply to equate the terms element/atom and simple body/molecule, respectively for apart from the fact that there are simple bodies whose molecules are single atoms, molecules and atoms belong indubitably to one and the same group of scientific concepts, while the essential difference between element and simple body in the Men-deleeffian sense of the words, lies in their belonging to quite different spheres in epistemology ([33], p 57). 

Concepts... are not defined by the eommon denominator of their representations, but by the sum, the union of meanings implied by all these representations.. .. It is the nature of scientific concepts that they are semiotically multimodal... (pp. 110-111). 

Many scientific concepts are of a different kind from everyday concepts. Learners need to start with concepts built from tangible experience and developed later to include inferred concepts. 

What are the objections to these ideas The equivalence between students ideas and scientific conceptions had often been doubted. The main argument of many authors has been that both sides are incommensurable. Students conceptions with limited empirical foundation, often ad hoc formulated or post hoc reconstmcted by researchers, have a completely different ontological status to empirically based ideas that are carefully formulated and sharpened by debate among scientific peers. Gault (1991) sketches some cmcial differences as follows ... 

The seeond step is the investigation of students eoneeptions. Here, the model foeuses on the basie conceptions and not on isolated ideas eoneeming singular phenomena. The main questions here coneem (1) the nature of basic conceptions, (2) the use of seientifie language and terminology, (3) students ideas about seience and (4) possible eorrespondences and/or cfilferenoes between students ideas and scientific conceptions. One of the main ideas of the model is to confront students conceptions in a positive way. The cracial point is to eonsider their explanatory potential rather than their limitations. 

The conneetions between students ideas and scientific conceptions are less tight than above. Especially in the case of intermolecular forces, the eontexts that lead to the development of the theory are extremely eomplex and too complieated for school. Nevertheless, a historical embedding eould help students to reeognize the foeus and the limitations of the theories. 

Posner, G., Strike, K., Hewson, P, Gertzog, W. (1982) Accommodation of a scientific conception Towards a theory of conceptual change. Science Education, 66(2), 211-227. 

DIPLOCK A T, AGGERTT P J, ASHWELL M, BORNET F, FERN E B and ROBERFROID M D (1998) Scientific concepts of functional foods in Europe consensus document (FF-27-de98). Brussels ILSI-Europe, 1998. 

Former National Science Foundation director Neal Lane concurs I have become especially conscious of the discrepancy between the public s interest in, even fascination with, science and its limited knowledge about scientific concepts and issues. 121 He further adds, All scholarly fields—poetry or philosophy, architecture or agriculture—suffer from their separation from the public, although in the case of science, the separation may be more extreme. And yet science and the technology it spawns pervade the very structure of everyone s life... . 

Currently, scientists and experts from many countries are working on development and implementation of a readiness for anti terrorist actions. In addition to chemical weapons, terrorists can use various toxic chemicals from chemical industry, agriculture or products released from terrorist acts on industrial facilities. The arsenal of chemical agents that can be used as terrorist agents is practically unlimited. The focus of this workshop was assessment of scientific concepts and practical means for management of chemical agent casualties in the area of terrorist attack with emphasis on improving the medical treatment and decontamination. These problems were analyzed from an interdisciplinary perspective. 

The ideal species for carcinogenicity bioassays should absorb, metabolize, and excrete the compound under study exactly as humans do. Unfortunately, because of the small number of species that meet the other criteria for selection, there is limited practical utility to this important scientific concept, as applied to carcinogenicity studies. 

As a result, the limited ability of unit processes to create a viable niche for themselves within chemical engineering must ultimately be understood in terms which also involve unit operations. Although the historical resilience of unit processes turned out to be less than that of unit operations, it was no different in its essential elements. Studying the uneasy and ultimately unsuccessful career of unit processes can therefore be easily justified as a way to shed light on the far more successful career of unit operations. In particular, the career of unit processes raises a hypothesis about the evolution of unit operations. The staying power of unit operations was not so much because of the structural coherence of its conceptual elements as its essential links with social and, more specifically, professional groups. As a theoretical entity, unit operations appears far less stable and, in fact, appears quickly threatened by notions which rest on fewer and more fundamental scientific concepts. Ultimately, this threat came to be realized with the advent of transport phenomena, but this is another story. In effect, unit processes can be interpreted as both the attempt to extend the reach of unit operations and a symptom of their conceptual fragility. 

Scheringer, M. Persistence and Spatial Range of Environmental Chemicals New Ethical and Scientific Concepts for Risk Assessment (Wiley-VCH) Weinheim i.a. 2002... 

A. N. Garroway I would still hold out the hope for using these carbon relaxation rates to interpret mechanical properties, but the onus is on the experimenter to show he is actually measuring the effects of motion. Once that is done 1 think the idea will compete as freely as any other scientific concept. 

Full-color, high-quality computer-generated graphics (drawings and illustrations) are widely used in proposals to illustrate scientific concepts. 

Asserting that a particular person s problem is a disease because the patient or others believe it is a disease, or because it looks like a disease, or because doctors diagnose it as a disease, and treat it with drugs as if it were a disease, or because it entitles the subject to be qualified as disabled or because it presents an economic burden to the subjects family or society—3W that is irrelevant to the scientific concept of disease."... 

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