why biology in at least one respect a much more difficult science than physics?
816770
In biology your are dealing with the most complicated things\non earth - life.\n\nThese systems have numerous interacting parts and you need to know for each living system one studies - whether its a cell or and organ or a whole animal - which factors are relevant to your study and which ones aren't.  Furthermore, at the chemical level, there are literally thousands of compounds in a living system all ineracting with each other in ways we dont fully understand.\n\nPhysics, on the other hand, deals with "less complicated" systems with fewer variables to consider.  However, describing\nthese systems in mathematics is not that easy and solving the\nresulting equations in closed analytic form is mostly impossible for many situtations and one relies mostly on numerical methods\nto solve them.
792776
Nature is hardly mathematical !!\n\nTh
1081078
It's a good question, and of course the answer is not exactly a simple one.  The 'why' of scientific experiments can be rather complex, but let me try to give you some hopefully clarifying information.  \n\nThe problem of hominization, that is, how our species Homo sapiens became what it is, does not end with the evolutionary reconstruction of our ancestor species.  It also involves such difficult to answer notions as 'mind,' 'intelligence,' 'self-consciousness,' or 'person'.  All are terms we all use freely but we have a very hard time to explain.  If I tell you about how I felt yesterday when I saw Brasil win its opener game at the World Cup, you can relate and grasp what I mean, but it would be quite difficult to say how this experience differs from when a chimp feels when faced with a stronger attacking male.  In otehr words, what does it mean when we say 'feel'?  Many of the categories we take for granted for our species are difficult to fully understand and grasp scientifically.\n\nLanguage seems to be a major characteristic of our species, which in and of itself is reason enough to study it well.  About 40,000 years ago, our species (H. sapiens) began to spread widely across the planet, while numbers of another hominid species, the Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis) decreased rapidly.  Eventually, Neanderthals became extinct, and it has been hypothesized that one of the reasons they did was that they did not have the ability for complex speech.  Why would language matter?\n\nIn language we can express certain complicated complex and evolution can assume another degree of complexity.  We can convey information that then can be learned by others who did not have the same experience as ourselves.  Language allows for culture to evolve - or so it seems.\n\nRecent research has actually shown that culture can evolve with very 'simple' means of communication.  certain information can actually be taught by individuals even in species without semantically complex languag like ours.  For example, some decades ago Japenes primatologists began studying Macaque monkeys on Koshima Island and fed animals potatoes.  A little Macaque girl washed the sand of its potatoes and got the extra benefit of having them now salty from the sea water.  Her mother learned her daughter's behavior and soon potato washing had spread theoughout the colony.  Now, some generations later, all the Macaques of the Island wash their potatoes.  Culture is therefore possible not only in human beings.\n\nStudying communication in Macaques here showed us something about how complex social societies and their culture may evolve.  We learned about simple ways of passing on knowledge from one to the next generation.  But what more is there to learn from great apes or dolphins?\n\nBoth species are particularly interesting for modern communication research.  Aside from learning more about the basic function of language and communication, we can learn something about how our mind may work and how language plays a role in grasping reality.  Studies on chimpanzees and bottlenose dolphins have shown that these animals are able to recognize their own mirror reflection.This suggests a certain cognitive evoltuion that is mostly absent from other animals.  For example, our Macaques from Japan would attack their own mirror image, unaware that the individual they are seeing is themselves.  Studies on communication in chimpanzees and bottlenose dolphins have shown that animals indeed convey rather complex messages.  These can not only involve such simple informations as "Hi, here I am!" but also very complex behaviors such as reconciliation after fights.  Chimpanzees have been observed to show reconciliatory behavior after conflicts that serve to restore the community and allow for the social structure within the group to function.  What these studies taught us is that indeed aggression, which we long cons
613065
In my own observation, all micro organisms puzzle the modern biologists, especially the inexplicable origin of the life force behind the protoplasm in the living nucleus.  All that they have done so far is to name and describe the composition (oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, potassium, etc.) and the observable phenomena surrounding the cell.  \n\nOn the othe hand, it is also possible that biologists understand this already, they are just trying to find the right time and the right words to make us understand.  As the saying goes: "The teacher will appear when the student is ready."
46050
That is a very cool question. Biology is the study of life. Not just squids and kangaroos but you and the foods you eat.\n\nHey I love food, and air and water, without them none of us would be here! They are essential.\n\nBiology helps us understand where our essentials come from. For instance, a small change in an ecosystem could radically effect farmer's ability to grow plants and raise animals we depend on to live. In the 1930's the Dustbowl wiped out farms across a wide area!\n\nAlso many plants and animals produce complex chemicals which we use in everyday medicine. Aspirin for instance is derived from the willow tree. Antibiotics like Penicillin were discovered in spores of mold.
932572
As far as I understand it, most disciplines of "hard science" are built on principles of mathematics, but mathematics in of itself is not considered a "hard science." As more advanced it becomes, the more theoretical it gets, and starts to resemble something like philosophy.
126549
There are a lot of things science cannot and I believe never will be able to explain.  Particularly the behavior of human beings!
753718
One is capable of understanding the principals of science, the other is not.\nOne understands that he or she does not have all the answers.\nOne of these two types of people would like for students to learn some usable information while in school.\nOne allows human knowledge to grow and deepen.\nOne is capable of personal development.\nI'll leave it to you to guess which is which.
737132
Physics is an extremely visual discipline.  It takes imagining in pictures.  People who think best by getting their hands dirty touching stuff, or (worse still) in words rather than pictures, do more poorly in physics, because most physics teachers think in a visual sense, and most don't have the verbal skills needed to communicate with other types of people.\n\nFor most physicists: Newtonian mechanics is billiard balls; Electricity is water flowing around canals and pools and waterfalls and pumps; magnetism is iron filings around a bar magnet; light and sound are light/dark waves in a ripple tank.\n\nThen there's the math.  Now, most physicists don't start with the math, they start with the pictures, and use the math to prop up the answers.\n\nTo succeed in physics:  draw lots of pictures - you have to learn to think visually to get it.  Go over solved problems - see how the pictures fit into the math.  Once you realize that there are only about five or six basic equations, and you learn how to solve them (most physicists are bad at math, anyway), you go back to drawing pictures.\n\nAnd forget about historical personalities.  My god, the way people idolize Newton and Maxwell and Einstein, you'd think they were minor gods.  They were just people, thinking in pictures.\n\nDraw lots of pictures.
6645
The latest biological research is, unfortunately, not usually easy to learn. I would say the best way to access information that isn't bogged down in jargon is by reading good science writers, either in magazines like Scientific American and The New Scientist, or by picking up books in a bookstore. A good science writer will interpret the meaning of research without requiring the reader to be an expert in the field.\n\nFor the latest research that might not be as easy to read, the publications Science and Nature carry high profile research articles...but they are written for other scientists and not as easy to understand.\n\nYou can find the full text of original research papers by searching the PubMed database at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi. This will bring up summaries of research and links to the original articles. Subscriptions are required for most journals and the way most people access these are through university libraries.\n\nWhen looking at original research articles, it is important to remember that there are many controversies as things are worked out, and reading original research is like listening to a conversation. There are differing opinions, and research is about the process of discovery, so one article does not necessarily have the final word on a subject. Search for review articles for papers that summarize what is going on in a field.
1072447
Science has found that while not impossible for the two species to have sex, they were too different to reproduce- it was impossible for a egg of one and a sperm of another to come together and become an embryo.
364676
Physics, Chemistry and Biology.\n\nPhysics is the science of matter and energy and of interactions between the two, grouped in traditional fields such as acoustics, optics, mechanics, thermodynamics, and electromagnetism, as well as in modern extensions including atomic and nuclear physics, cryogenics, solid-state physics, particle physics, and plasma phyics.\n\nChemistry is the science of the composition, structure, properties, and reactions of matter, especially of atomic and molecular systems. \n\nBiology is the science of life and of living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution. It includes botany and zoology and all their subdivisions.
219340
You seem to have answered your own question!  Sociology is supposed to be a 'science', yet sociology majors 'hate all the sciences'.  Science majors recognize that a field which claims to be a science must require substantial training in the basic sciences.\n\nBest wishes!
64586
Physical Science or Physics
357996
Engineering is a bad choice if you are struggling with physics. A weakness in Physics is often a signal of poor mathematical skills which are essential for an engineer.
678891
i agree with you. physics really makes you think critically (and its like more attached to the real world) it has lots of formulas to choose from but you need a very good analogy for it.\n\nbiology is next, what can i say? mitosis is really that interesting.\n\nbut chemistry???? who cares about octavian??? duh? i dont even remember any of it.!
571601
Physics tolerates us. \nYou can choose to tolerate physics, or not. Depends on how motivated you are to understand the universe, really.