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Members of the Academy in 1667 with Louis XIV

Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into two – or three – major branches: the natural sciences, which study the physical world, and the social sciences, which study individuals and societies. While referred to as the formal sciences, the study of logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science are typically regarded as separate because they rely on deductive reasoning instead of the scientific method as their main methodology. Meanwhile, applied sciences are disciplines that use scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as engineering and medicine. (Full article...)

Featured article -

Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

Image 1

Phallus indusiatus, commonly called the basket stinkhorn, bamboo mushrooms, bamboo pith, long net stinkhorn, crinoline stinkhorn, bridal veil, or veiled lady, is a species of fungus in the family Phallaceae, known as stinkhorns. First described scientifically in 1798 by French botanist Étienne Pierre Ventenat, the species has often been referred to a separate genus Dictyophora along with other Phallus species featuring an indusium. (Full article...)
Image 2

Archimedes Thoughtful by Fetti (1620)

Archimedes of Syracuse (/ˌɑːrkɪˈmiːdiːz/ AR-kih-MEE-deez; c. 287 – c. 212 BC) was an Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse in Sicily. Although few details of his life are known, based on his surviving work, he is considered one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity, and one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. Archimedes anticipated modern calculus and analysis by applying the concept of the infinitesimals and the method of exhaustion to derive and rigorously prove many geometrical theorems, including the area of a circle, the surface area and volume of a sphere, the area of an ellipse, the area under a parabola, the volume of a segment of a paraboloid of revolution, the volume of a segment of a hyperboloid of revolution, and the area of a spiral. (Full article...)
Image 3

Oberon, as imaged by Voyager 2, January 1986. A number of bright-rayed craters are visible, with the largest, Hamlet, at center. At the lower left limb rises an 11 km high mountain.

Oberon /ˈoʊbərɒn/, also designated Uranus IV, is the outermost and second-largest major moon of the planet Uranus. It is the second-most massive of the Uranian moons, and the tenth-largest moon in the Solar System. Discovered by William Herschel in 1787, Oberon is named after the mythical king of the fairies who appears as a character in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Its orbit lies partially outside Uranus's magnetosphere. (Full article...)
Image 4

B. sessilis var. cordata

Banksia sessilis, commonly known as parrot bush, is a species of shrub or tree in the plant genus Banksia of the family Proteaceae. It had been known as Dryandra sessilis until 2007, when the genus Dryandra was sunk into Banksia. The Noongar peoples know the plant as budjan or butyak. Widespread throughout southwest Western Australia, it is found on sandy soils over laterite or limestone, often as an understorey plant in open forest, woodland or shrubland. Encountered as a shrub or small tree up to 6 m (20 ft) in height, it has prickly dark green leaves and dome-shaped cream-yellow flowerheads. Flowering from winter through to late spring, it provides a key source of food—both the nectar and the insects it attracts—for honeyeaters in the cooler months, and species diversity is reduced in areas where there is little or no parrot bush occurring. Several species of honeyeater, some species of native bee, and the European honey bee seek out and consume the nectar, while the long-billed black cockatoo and Australian ringneck eat the seed. The life cycle of Banksia sessilis is adapted to regular bushfires. Killed by fire and regenerating by seed afterwards, each shrub generally produces many flowerheads and a massive amount of seed. It can recolonise disturbed areas, and may grow in thickets. (Full article...)
Image 5

Adult rainbow trout

The rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coastal rainbow trout (O. m. irideus) or Columbia River redband trout (O. m. gairdneri) that usually returns to freshwater to spawn after living two to three years in the ocean. (Full article...)
Image 6

A female African bush elephant in Mikumi National Park, Tanzania

Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana), the African forest elephant (L. cyclotis), and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea; extinct relatives include mammoths and mastodons. Distinctive features of elephants include a long proboscis called a trunk, tusks, large ear flaps, pillar-like legs, and tough but sensitive grey skin. The trunk is prehensile, bringing food and water to the mouth and grasping objects. Tusks, which are derived from the incisor teeth, serve both as weapons and as tools for moving objects and digging. The large ear flaps assist in maintaining a constant body temperature as well as in communication. African elephants have larger ears and concave backs, whereas Asian elephants have smaller ears and convex or level backs. (Full article...)
Image 7

The common toad, European toad, or in Anglophone parts of Europe, simply the toad (Bufo bufo, from Latin bufo "toad"), is a toad found throughout most of Europe (with the exception of Ireland, Iceland, parts of Scandinavia, and some Mediterranean islands), in the western part of North Asia, and in a small portion of Northwest Africa. It is one of a group of closely related animals that are descended from a common ancestral line of toads and which form a species complex. The toad is an inconspicuous animal as it usually lies hidden during the day. It becomes active at dusk and spends the night hunting for the invertebrates on which it feeds. It moves with a slow, ungainly walk or short jumps, and has greyish-brown skin covered with wart-like lumps. (Full article...)
Image 8

With roadkill, Collinsvale, Tasmania

The forest raven (Corvus tasmanicus), also commonly known as the Tasmanian raven, is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae native to Tasmania and parts of southern Victoria, such as Wilsons Promontory and Portland. Populations are also found in parts of New South Wales, including Dorrigo and Armidale. Measuring 50–53 cm (20–21 in) in length, it has all-black plumage, beak and legs. As with the other two species of raven in Australia, its black feathers have grey bases. Adults have white irises; younger birds have dark brown and then hazel irises with an inner blue rim. New South Wales populations are recognised as a separate subspecies C. tasmanicus boreus, but appear to be nested within the Tasmanian subspecies genetically. (Full article...)
Image 9

Souvenir theatre card

Henry Edwards (27 August 1827 – 9 June 1891) was an English stage actor, writer and entomologist who gained fame in Australia, San Francisco and New York City for his theatre work. (Full article...)
Image 10

Mount Mazama collapsed into a caldera, which filled with water to form Crater Lake

Mount Mazama (Klamath: Tum-sum-ne) is a complex volcano in the western U.S. state of Oregon, in a segment of the Cascade Volcanic Arc and Cascade Range. The volcano is in Klamath County, in the southern Cascades, 60 miles (97 km) north of the Oregon–California border. Its collapse, due to the eruption of magma emptying the underlying magma chamber, formed a caldera that holds Crater Lake (Giiwas in the Native American language Klamath). Mount Mazama originally had an elevation of approximately 12,000 feet (3,700 m), but following its climactic eruption this was reduced to 8,157 feet (2,486 m). Crater Lake is 1,943 feet (592 m) deep, the deepest freshwater body in the U.S. and the second deepest in North America after Great Slave Lake in Canada. (Full article...)
Image 11

View of Mount Berlin from the surrounding ice sheet

Mount Berlin is a glacier-covered volcano in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the Amundsen Sea. It is a roughly 20-kilometre-wide (12 mi) mountain with parasitic vents that consists of two coalesced volcanoes: Berlin proper with the 2-kilometre-wide (1.2 mi) Berlin Crater and Merrem Peak with a 2.5-by-1-kilometre-wide (1.55 mi × 0.62 mi) crater, 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) away from Berlin. The summit of the volcano is 3,478 metres (11,411 ft) above sea level. It has a volume of 200 cubic kilometres (48 cu mi) and rises from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. It is part of the Marie Byrd Land Volcanic Province. Trachyte is the dominant volcanic rock and occurs in the form of lava flows and pyroclastic rocks. (Full article...)
Image 12

Ficus obliqua, Milton, New South Wales

Ficus obliqua, commonly known as the small-leaved fig, is a tree in the family Moraceae, native to eastern Australia, New Guinea, eastern Indonesia to Sulawesi and islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Previously known for many years as Ficus eugenioides, it is a banyan of the genus Ficus, which contains around 750 species worldwide in warm climates, including the edible fig (Ficus carica). Beginning life as a seedling, which grows on other plants (epiphyte) or on rocks (lithophyte), F. obliqua can grow to 60 m (200 ft) high and nearly as wide with a pale grey buttressed trunk, and glossy green leaves. (Full article...)
Image 13
A grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) feeding a pup, island of Skye.

The fauna of Scotland is generally typical of the northwest European part of the Palearctic realm, although several of the country's larger mammals were hunted to extinction in historic times and human activity has also led to various species of wildlife being introduced. Scotland's diverse temperate environments support 62 species of wild mammals, including a population of wildcats, important numbers of grey and harbour seals and the most northerly colony of bottlenose dolphins in the world. (Full article...)
Image 14

Along Astley Road

Chat Moss is a large area of peat bog that makes up part of the City of Salford, Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. It also makes up part of Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in Merseyside and Warrington in Cheshire. North of the Manchester Ship Canal and River Mersey, 5 miles (8 km) to the west of Manchester, it occupies an area of about 10.6 square miles (27.5 km²). (Full article...)
Image 15

Banksia telmatiaea, commonly known as swamp fox banksia or rarely marsh banksia, is a shrub that grows in marshes and swamps along the lower west coast of Australia. It grows as an upright bush up to 2 metres (6 feet 7 inches) tall, with narrow leaves and a pale brown flower spike, which can produce profuse quantities of nectar. First collected in the 1840s, it was not published as a separate species until 1981; as with several other similar species it was previously included in B. sphaerocarpa (fox banksia). (Full article...)

Featured pictures

Featured pictures about Science.

Image 1Toroid magnets of the ATLAS detector, by Maximilien Brice, CERN (edited by Bammesk) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 2Nobel Prize in Physics diploma, by Sofia Gisberg (restored by Jebulon) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 3Lorentz transformation of world line, by Cyp (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 4Oblique shock, by NASA/United States Air Force (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 5Total internal reflection, by Jean-Marc Kuffer (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 6Wind wave, by Alvesgaspar (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 7Light dispersion, by LucasVB (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 8Peruvian Andes at United States Exploring Expedition, by Alfred Thomas Agate (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 9NASA study on wingtip vortices at Wake turbulence, by Langley Research Center (edited by Fir0002) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 10Archaeological excavation at Atapuerca Mountains, by Mario modesto (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
$Image 11Refraction in raindrops, by Mila Zinkova (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)$

Image 11Refraction in raindrops, by Mila Zinkova (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 12Diet Coke and Mentos eruption, by Mikemurphy (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 13Thermite reaction, by Nikthestunned (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 14Hypervelocity impact demonstration, by NASA (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 15Activation energy, by Debivort (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 16Kármán vortex street, by Cesareo de La Rosa Siqueira (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 17Dichroic prism, by XRay (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 18Projectile motion of a bouncing ball at Inelastic collision, by MichaelMaggs (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 19Ice core, by the Greenland Ice Sheet Project (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 20Plasma globe, by Colin (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 21Parallax, by Mila Zinkova (edited by Richard Bartz) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 22Operation Tumbler-Snapper, by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 23Mechanical advantage device, by Prolineserver (edited by Tomia, Ss181292 and Atropos235) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 24Vibrating glass beam at Euler–Bernoulli beam theory, by Ben pcc (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 25Animation of a water drop, by Chris 73 and Gmaxwell (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 26Section of the Large Hadron Collider, by Maximilien Brice (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 27Simulation of liquids with different viscosities, by Synapticrelay (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 28Holdridge life zones, by Peter Halasz (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 29Australian Synchrotron, by John O'Neill (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 30Drop impact on a liquid surface, by José Manuel Suárez (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 31Global oceanic and terrestrial photoautotroph abundance at Primary production, by SeaWiFS Project (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 32Warming stripes, by Ed Hawkins (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 33Rusty chain, by WikipedianMarlith (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 34Fast breeder reactor, by Graevemoore (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 35Color cathodoluminescence of a diamond, by Pavel.Somov (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 36Archaeologists prospecting Santa Ana Cave at Excavation (archaeology), by Mario modesto (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 37Translational motion at Thermodynamic temperature, by Greg L (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)

Vital articles

Vital articles to understand Science.

Diverse forms of life on a coral reef

Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, organisation, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli, and reproduction. All life over time eventually reaches a state of death, and none is immortal. Many philosophical definitions of living systems have been proposed, such as self-organizing systems. Viruses in particular make definition difficult as they replicate only in host cells. Life exists all over the Earth in air, water, and soil, with many ecosystems forming the biosphere. Some of these are harsh environments occupied only by extremophiles. (Full article...)

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Astronomy Universe Biology Ecology Evolution Chemistry Chemical element Climate Geology Medicine Physics Atom Energy Time Social sciences Communication Language Writing Culture Economics Agriculture Business Psychology Society Education

Did you know...

Did you know it about Science?

... that zoologist Olive Swezy appeared in the 1944 American Men of Science?
... that Na drugą planetę, published in 1895 as one of the earliest Polish science-fiction novels, was later criticized by communist-era censors for its perceived "adoration for America"?
... that a nuclear reactor was nearly built at the New York Hall of Science, but the money for the institution instead went to Yankee Stadium?
... that the magazine Science Fiction Chronicle changed its name to just Chronicle two decades after its launch, to avoid being confused with the San Francisco Chronicle?
... that the Data Colada bloggers drew attention to the replication crisis by exposing faulty social science research?
... that the Springfield Science Museum is home to the oldest operating projection planetarium in the United States?

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