Science vs Nature

There are many tensions between Science and Nature; this one churned in my thoughts during a particularly dull lab meeting many moons ago. Old words.

Science involves trying to understand natural processes by dissection (not always literal) and examination of the composite parts, then trying to fit these parts into the grand scheme of the process in question. So much of Science involves classifying and sorting entities, from butterfly species to serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates. In doing all of this organising and strict classifying we are imposing our way of thinking on Nature’s products. It’s a fundamental difference in concepts. Science attempts to compartmentalise natural processes, but there will inevitably be overlaps where what we find in Nature doesn’t conform to the artificial organisational system we have created. We don’t have enough boxes into which Nature’s offerings can be put, and continually creating new ones seems to defeat the point. Science and Nature should work together, not be in battle.