The word science has been used in Middle English since the 14th century in the sense of "the state of knowing". The word was borrowed from the 展开

Modern science is commonly divided into three major branches: natural science, social science, and formal science. Each of these branches comprises various specialised yet overlapping scientific disciplines that often possess their own nomenclature 展开

Scientific research can be labelled as either basic or applied research. Basic research is the search for knowledge and applied research is the search for solutions to practical … 展开

The scientific community is a network of interacting scientists who conduct scientific research. The community consists of smaller groups working in scientific fields. By having peer review, through discussion and debate within journals and … 展开

Early history
Science has no single origin. Rather, systematic methods emerged gradually over the course of tens of thousands of years, taking different … 展开

There are different schools of thought in the philosophy of science. The most popular position is empiricism, which holds that knowledge is created … 展开

Funding and policies
Scientific research is often funded through a competitive process in which potential research projects are evaluated and only the most promising … 展开