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149-453: Equipment used varies widely in this field, and is generally selected based on cost, effectiveness, availability and risk factors. Open-circuit scuba is most often used as it is widely available and cost-effective, and is the entry-level training mode in most places, but since the late 1990s the use of rebreather equipment has opened up previously inaccessible regions and allowed more reliable observations of animal behaviour. Scientific diving in

298-482: A diving control board taking overall responsibility for all scientific diving work done by an organisation. The diving safety officer is responsible to the board for operational, diving and safety matters. For each dive, one scientist, designated as the lead diver , must be present at the site during that entire operation, and is responsible for management of the dive, including dive planning , briefing, emergency planning, equipment and procedures. The divers operate in

447-492: A 2020 United Nations Environment Programme report found that most of these efforts had failed to meet their goals. For example, of the 20 biodiversity goals laid out by the Aichi Biodiversity Targets in 2010, only six were "partially achieved" by 2020. This ongoing global extinction is also called the holocene extinction or sixth mass extinction. The current rate of global biodiversity loss

596-538: A century before, were first observed . In 2019, the international collaboration Event Horizon Telescope presented the first direct image of a black hole 's accretion disc . 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 and expertise. Both natural and social sciences are empirical sciences , as their knowledge

745-549: A decrease in biodiversity and species numbers . Habitat destruction is in fact the leading cause of biodiversity loss and species extinction worldwide. For example, habitat loss is one of the causes in the decline of insect populations (see the section below on insects ). The direct effects of urban growth on habitat loss are well understood: building construction often results in habitat destruction and fragmentation. This leads to selection for species that are adapted to urban environments. Small habitat patches cannot support

894-481: A discipline. Ideas on human nature, society, and economics evolved during the Enlightenment. Hume and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed A Treatise of Human Nature , which was expressed historically in works by authors including James Burnett , Adam Ferguson , John Millar and William Robertson , all of whom merged a scientific study of how humans behaved in ancient and primitive cultures with

1043-567: A few international agreements that facilitate scientists from different places working together on projects of common interest, by recognising mutually acceptable minimum levels of competence. Scientific diving is any diving undertaken in the support of science , so activities are widely varied and may include visual counts and measurements of organisms in situ, collection of samples, surveys, photography, videography, video mosaicing, benthic coring, coral coring, placement, maintenance and retrieval of scientific equipment . The importance of diving to

1192-411: A few of their scientific predecessors – Galileo , Kepler , Boyle , and Newton principally – as the guides to every physical and social field of the day. The 18th century saw significant advancements in the practice of medicine and physics; the development of biological taxonomy by Carl Linnaeus ; a new understanding of magnetism and electricity; and the maturation of chemistry as

1341-417: A flexible and reliable method for deploying, maintaining and retrieving equipment from under‐ice environments, and are relatively cost efficient for researching remote locations that, would otherwise require the use of more expensive research vessels. The global threat to marine ecosystems due to over‐exploitation, habitat loss, pollution and climate change is exacerbated by introduction of alien species, which

1490-423: A greater role in knowledge creation and it was not until the 19th century that many of the institutional and professional features of science began to take shape, along with the changing of "natural philosophy" to "natural science". New knowledge in science is advanced by research from scientists who are motivated by curiosity about the world and a desire to solve problems. Contemporary scientific research

1639-475: A highly stable universe where there could be little loss of resources. However, with the advent of the steam engine and the Industrial Revolution there was an increased understanding that not all forms of energy have the same energy qualities , the ease of conversion to useful work or to another form of energy. This realisation led to the development of the laws of thermodynamics , in which

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1788-455: A hypothesis proves unsatisfactory it is modified or discarded. If the hypothesis survives testing, it may become adopted into the framework of a scientific theory , a validly reasoned , self-consistent model or framework for describing the behaviour of certain natural events. A theory typically describes the behaviour of much broader sets of observations than a hypothesis; commonly, a large number of hypotheses can be logically bound together by

1937-435: A large amount of low-impact observational data contributing significantly to the large body of knowledge on the subject over several decades. The field of ocean acidification and the impact of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emission has seen similar growth and most of the cited articles in this field have relied to a significant extent on data collected during scuba diving operations. The field of paleoclimate reconstruction has

2086-410: A large role in biodiversity loss. More than half of the worlds biodiversity is hosted in tropical rainforest. Regions that are subjected to exponential loss of biodiversity are referred to as biodiversity hotspots . Since 1988 the hotspots increased from 10 to 34. Of the total 34 hotspots currently present, 16 of them are in tropical regions (as of 2006). Researchers have noted in 2006 that only 2.3% of

2235-532: A major influence on the understanding of evolution and the ecological and biogeographic past, as climate is the most powerful driver of evolution. Coring corals on a reef in the least harmful and focused manner is currently most practicable using scuba technology. This mining of the past makes it possible to attempt to predict future climate. Advances in training and accessibility to trimix diving and closed circuit rebreather systems has enabled scientific divers to reach highly diverse deeper mesophotic reefs which may be

2384-407: A new non- teleological way. This implied a shift in the view of objects: objects were now considered as having no innate goals. Leibniz assumed that different types of things all work according to the same general laws of nature, with no special formal or final causes. During this time the declared purpose and value of science became producing wealth and inventions that would improve human lives, in

2533-450: A partial exemption to the commercial diving standards was issued in 1982, and was re-examined in 1984, leading to the final guidelines for the exemption which became effective in 1985 (Federal Register, Vol. 50, No. 6, p. 1046) In 1988 Unesco published the Code of Practice for Scientific Diving: Principles for the safe practice of scientific diving in different environments , authored by

2682-458: A preference for one outcome over another. Eliminating the bias can be achieved through transparency, careful experimental design , and a thorough peer review process of the experimental results and conclusions. After the results of an experiment are announced or published, it is normal practice for independent researchers to double-check how the research was performed, and to follow up by performing similar experiments to determine how dependable

2831-456: A priori disciplines and because of this, there is disagreement on whether they constitute a science. Nevertheless, the formal sciences play an important role in the empirical sciences. Calculus , for example, was initially invented to understand motion in physics. Natural and social sciences that rely heavily on mathematical applications include mathematical physics , chemistry , biology , finance , and economics . Applied science

2980-400: A revolution in information technology and the rise of the global internet and mobile computing , including smartphones . The need for mass systematisation of long, intertwined causal chains and large amounts of data led to the rise of the fields of systems theory and computer-assisted scientific modelling . The Human Genome Project was completed in 2003 by identifying and mapping all of

3129-800: A role. Freshwater ecosystems such as swamps, deltas, and rivers make up 1% of earth's surface. They are important because they are home to approximately one third of vertebrate species. Freshwater species are beginning to decline at twice the rate of species that live on land or in the ocean. This rapid loss has already placed 27% of 29,500 species dependent on fresh water on the IUCN Red List . Global populations of freshwater fish are collapsing due to water pollution and overfishing . Migratory fish populations have declined by 76% since 1970, and large "megafish" populations have fallen by 94% with 16 species declared extinct in 2020. Marine biodiversity encompasses any living organism that resides in

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3278-421: A selection of publications known to have used scientific diving in the same period, shows that a small minority of papers were discovered, suggesting that the importance of scientific diving as a valid and cost-effective underwater research tool is greatly underrepresented in the literature. Some underwater work in support of science is out of scope of the relevant regulations, exemptions, or codes of practice, and

3427-461: A separate discipline from philosophy when Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory for psychological research in 1879. During the mid-19th century Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace independently proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection in 1858, which explained how different plants and animals originated and evolved. Their theory was set out in detail in Darwin's book On

3576-592: A separate field because they rely on deductive reasoning instead of the scientific method or empirical evidence as their main methodology. Applied sciences are disciplines that use scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as engineering and medicine . The history of science spans the majority of the historical record, with the earliest written records of identifiable predecessors to modern science dating to Bronze Age Egypt and Mesopotamia from around 3000 to 1200 BCE . Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy , and medicine entered and shaped

3725-475: A set of basic assumptions that are needed to justify the scientific method: there is an objective reality shared by all rational observers; this objective reality is governed by natural laws ; these laws were discovered by means of systematic observation and experimentation. Mathematics is essential in the formation of hypotheses , theories , and laws, because it is used extensively in quantitative modelling, observing, and collecting measurements . Statistics

3874-463: A set of rules. It includes mathematics, systems theory , and theoretical computer science . The formal sciences share similarities with the other two branches by relying on objective, careful, and systematic study of an area of knowledge. They are, however, different from the empirical sciences as they rely exclusively on deductive reasoning, without the need for empirical evidence, to verify their abstract concepts. The formal sciences are therefore

4023-478: A single theory. Thus, a theory is a hypothesis explaining various other hypotheses. In that vein, theories are formulated according to most of the same scientific principles as hypotheses. Scientists may generate a model , an attempt to describe or depict an observation in terms of a logical, physical or mathematical representation, and to generate new hypotheses that can be tested by experimentation. While performing experiments to test hypotheses, scientists may have

4172-513: A strict buddy diving system. The standard procedures for scuba and surface-supplied diving are essentially the same as for any other similar diving operation using similar equipment in a similar environment, by both recreational, technical and other professional divers. There are a few special cases where scientific diving operations are carried out in places where other divers would generally not go, such as blue-water diving . Scientific dives tend to be more task oriented than recreational dives, as

4321-429: A strong awareness of the determining forces of modernity . Modern sociology largely originated from this movement. In 1776, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations , which is often considered the first work on modern economics. During the nineteenth century many distinguishing characteristics of contemporary modern science began to take shape. These included the transformation of the life and physical sciences;

4470-444: A supervisor, who will manage the operation from the surface control point. If the divers are tethered, there will generally be a line tender for each tethered diver in the water The stand-by diver may remain out of the water at the surface or may accompany the working diver or divers in the water. Surface-supplied and saturation operations will also generally follow standard procedures used by commercial divers. Other scientific diving

4619-438: A unified theory in the early 20th-century when the modern synthesis reconciled Darwinian evolution with classical genetics . Albert Einstein 's theory of relativity and the development of quantum mechanics complement classical mechanics to describe physics in extreme length , time and gravity . Widespread use of integrated circuits in the last quarter of the 20th century combined with communications satellites led to

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4768-682: 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 (e.g., physics , chemistry , and biology ), which study the physical world ; and the behavioural sciences (e.g., economics , psychology , and sociology ), which study individuals and societies. The formal sciences (e.g., logic , mathematics, and theoretical computer science ), which study formal systems governed by axioms and rules, are sometimes described as being sciences as well; however, they are often regarded as

4917-469: Is a decrease or disappearance of species in a specific area. Biodiversity loss means that there is a reduction in biological diversity in a given area. The decrease can be temporary or permanent. It is temporary if the damage that led to the loss is reversible in time, for example through ecological restoration . If this is not possible, then the decrease is permanent. The cause of most of the biodiversity loss is, generally speaking, human activities that push

5066-580: Is a major driver of biodiversity loss, with infrastructure present in roughly 80% of KBAs. Infrastructure development leads to conversion and fragmentation of natural habitat, pollution and disturbance. There can also be direct harm to animals through collisions with vehicles and structures. This can have impacts beyond the infrastructure site. Humans are changing the uses of land in various ways, and each can lead to habitat destruction and biodiversity loss. The 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services found that industrial agriculture

5215-428: Is another threat to global biodiversity . For example, coral reefs —which are biodiversity hotspots —will be lost by the year 2100 if global warming continues at the current rate. Still, it is the general habitat destruction (often for expansion of agriculture), not climate change, that is currently the bigger driver of biodiversity loss. Invasive species and other disturbances have become more common in forests in

5364-431: Is autonomous and personally responsible for the planning and execution of their dives. Any agreement between two dive buddies regarding mutual duty of care should follow established legislation for that purpose, if it exists in the relevant jurisdiction. If the diver is under the direction of a person appointed by an organisation, this exclusion may fall away as the appointed person becomes responsible for health and safety at

5513-487: Is based on empirical observations and is capable of being tested for its validity by other researchers working under the same conditions. Natural science is the study of the physical world. It can be divided into two main branches: life science and physical science . These two branches may be further divided into more specialised disciplines. For example, physical science can be subdivided into physics, chemistry , astronomy , and earth science . Modern natural science

5662-439: Is becoming a central feature of computational contributions to science, for example in agent-based computational economics , random forests , topic modeling and various forms of prediction. However, machines alone rarely advance knowledge as they require human guidance and capacity to reason; and they can introduce bias against certain social groups or sometimes underperform against humans. Interdisciplinary science involves

5811-558: Is believed to be seven times lower than its prehistoric values, while the biomass of marine mammals had declined fivefold. At the same time, the biomass of humans is "an order of magnitude higher than that of all wild mammals", and the biomass of livestock mammals like pigs and cattle is even larger than that. Even as wild mammals had declined, the growth in the numbers of humans and livestock had increased total mammal biomass fourfold. Only 4% of that increased number are wild mammals, while livestock and humans amount to 60% and 36%. Alongside

5960-658: Is common in marine ecosystems, affecting at least 55 marine species. One study found that as seismic noises and naval sonar increases in marine ecosystems, cetacean diversity decreases (including whales and dolphins). Multiple studies have found that fewer fishes, such as cod , haddock , rockfish , herring , sand seal, and blue whiting , have been spotted in areas with seismic noises, with catch rates declining by 40–80%. Noise pollution has also altered avian communities and diversity. Noise can reduce reproductive success, minimize nesting areas, increase stress response, and reduce species abundance. Noise pollution can alter

6109-448: Is considered to be one of the leading causes of extinctions and biodiversity loss . Scientific divers are the most competent to detect the presence of potentially invasive species and in some cases can provide a quick response. Monitoring the effectiveness of response also requires diver intervention. Underwater archaeology has developed considerably over the past century, and diving allows a site to be excavated with minimal disturbance of

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6258-714: Is considered to be one of the most important publications in medicine and was used until the 18th century. By the eleventh century most of Europe had become Christian, and in 1088, the University of Bologna emerged as the first university in Europe. As such, demand for Latin translation of ancient and scientific texts grew, a major contributor to the Renaissance of the 12th century . Renaissance scholasticism in western Europe flourished, with experiments done by observing, describing, and classifying subjects in nature. In

6407-860: Is difficult to determine the full scope of underwater science in the past, as not all work or methodologies have been published. Scientific diving may use any mode of diving that is best suited to the project. Scientific diving operations may use and have used freediving , scuba open circuit , scuba closed circuit , surface oriented surface-supplied systems , saturation diving from surface or underwater habitats , atmospheric suit diving or remotely operated underwater vehicles . Breathing gases used include air, oxygen , nitrox , trimix , heliox and experimental mixtures. Several citizen science projects use observational input from recreational divers to provide reliable data on presence and distribution of marine organisms. The ready availability of digital underwater cameras makes collection of such observations easy and

6556-507: Is due to hunting and trapping for the exotic pet trade. Deforestation , caused by unsustainable logging and agriculture, could be the next extinction driver, because birds lose their habitat and their food. While plants are essential for human survival, they have not received the same attention as the conservation of animals. It is estimated that a third of all land plant species are at risk of extinction and 94% have yet to be evaluated in terms of their conservation status. Plants existing at

6705-654: Is estimated to be 100 to 1000 times higher than the (naturally occurring) background extinction rate , faster than at any other time in human history, and is expected to grow in the upcoming years. The fast-growing extinction trends of various animal groups like mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish have led scientists to declare a current biodiversity crisis in both land and ocean ecosystems. In 2006, many more species were formally classified as rare or endangered or threatened ; moreover, scientists have estimated that millions more species are at risk that have not been formally recognized. Deforestation also plays

6854-507: Is governed by occupational health and safety regulations. The US operates under the AAUS guidelines which allow considerable flexibility regarding equipment and procedures based on principles of acceptable safety, and restrict operations to activities recognised as scientific work, though some activities are excluded due to higher risk. Dr Richard Pyle has pioneered US development of diving standards for scientific projects at greater depths since

7003-542: Is highly collaborative and is usually done by teams in academic and research institutions , government agencies, and companies. The practical impact of their work has led to the emergence of science policies that seek to influence the scientific enterprise by prioritising the ethical and moral development of commercial products, armaments, health care, public infrastructure, and environmental protection . The word science has been used in Middle English since

7152-405: Is legally permitted. Scientific diving operations which are part of the work of an organisation are generally under the control of a diving supervisor or equivalent, and follow procedures similar to other professional diving operations . A scientific diving operation that follows the usual procedures of a commercial scuba operation will include one or more working divers, a stand-by diver and

7301-435: Is navigation focused upon the use of an underwater magnetic compass . and following a guide line . Natural navigation, sometimes known as pilotage , involves orienting by naturally observable phenomena, such as sunlight, water movement, bottom composition (for example, sand ripples run parallel to the direction of the wave front, which tends to run parallel to the shore), bottom contour and noise. Although natural navigation

7450-438: Is not legally classed as scientific diving. This work is required to be done by divers trained, registered, and operating following commercial diving health and safety practices. Underwater diving interventions, particularly on scuba, provide the capacity for scientists to make direct observations on site and in real time, which allow for ground-truthing of larger scale observations and occasional serendipitous observations outside

7599-580: Is often a matter of debate. An October 2020 analysis by Swiss Re found that one-fifth of all countries are at risk of ecosystem collapse as the result of anthropogenic habitat destruction and increased wildlife loss. If these losses are not reversed, a total ecosystem collapse could ensue. In 2022, the World Wildlife Fund reported an average population decline of 68% between 1970 and 2016 for 4,400 animal species worldwide, encompassing nearly 21,000 monitored populations. Insects are

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7748-400: Is on projects under the control and direction of the scientists doing the diving, and where this is the case there may be a system with less rigid control as the divers have more responsibility and autonomy. The US works to such a system, where there is an exemption from commercial diving regulation and scientific diving is self-regulated within a national association. The American system has

7897-499: Is placed on marine ecosystems near coastal areas because of the human settlements in those areas. Overexploitation has resulted in the extinction of over 25 marine species. This includes seabirds , marine mammals , algae , and fish . Examples of extinct marine species include Steller's sea cow ( Hydrodamalis gigas ) and the Caribbean monk seal ( Monachus tropicalis ). Not all extinctions are because of humans. For example, in

8046-438: Is taught on courses, developing the skills is generally more a matter of experience. Orienteering, or compass navigation, is a matter of training, practice and familiarity with the use of underwater compasses, combined with various techniques for reckoning distance underwater, including kick cycles (one complete upward and downward sweep of a kick), time, air consumption and occasionally by actual measurement. Kick cycles depend on

8195-725: Is the primary driver of biodiversity collapse. The UN's Global Biodiversity Outlook 2014 estimated that 70% of the projected loss of terrestrial biodiversity is caused by agriculture use. According to a 2005 publication, "Cultivated systems [...] cover 24% of Earth's surface". The publication defined cultivated areas as "areas in which at least 30% of the landscape is in croplands, shifting cultivation, confined livestock production, or freshwater aquaculture in any particular year". More than 17,000 species are at risk of losing habitat by 2050 as agriculture continues to expand to meet future food needs (as of 2020). A global shift toward largely plant-based diets would free up land to allow for

8344-644: Is the relative representation of a species in a particular ecosystem . It is usually measured as the number of individuals found per sample . The ratio of abundance of one species to one or multiple other species living in an ecosystem is called relative species abundance . Both indicators are relevant for computing biodiversity . There are many different biodiversity indexes . These investigate different scales and time spans. Biodiversity has various scales and subcategories (e.g. phylogenetic diversity , species diversity , genetic diversity , nucleotide diversity ). The question of net loss in confined regions

8493-447: Is the search for solutions to practical problems using this knowledge. Most understanding comes from basic research, though sometimes applied research targets specific practical problems. This leads to technological advances that were not previously imaginable. Scientific research involves using the scientific method , which seeks to objectively explain the events of nature in a reproducible way. Scientists usually take for granted

8642-533: Is the successor to the natural philosophy that began in Ancient Greece . Galileo , Descartes , Bacon , and Newton debated the benefits of using approaches that were more mathematical and more experimental in a methodical way. Still, philosophical perspectives, conjectures , and presuppositions , often overlooked, remain necessary in natural science. Systematic data collection, including discovery science , succeeded natural history , which emerged in

8791-427: Is the use of the scientific method and knowledge to attain practical goals and includes a broad range of disciplines such as engineering and medicine. Engineering is the use of scientific principles to invent, design and build machines, structures and technologies. Science may contribute to the development of new technologies. Medicine is the practice of caring for patients by maintaining and restoring health through

8940-585: Is trying to take action and promote the restoration and maintenance of the many diverse species of earthworms. Since the 1980s, decreases in amphibian populations, including population decline and localized mass extinctions , have been observed in locations all over the world. This type of biodiversity loss is known as one of the most critical threats to global biodiversity . The possible causes include habitat destruction and modification, diseases, exploitation, pollution , pesticide use, introduced species , and ultraviolet-B radiation (UV-B). However, many of

9089-403: Is used to make falsifiable predictions, which are typically posted before being tested by experimentation. Disproof of a prediction is evidence of progress. Experimentation is especially important in science to help establish causal relationships to avoid the correlation fallacy , though in some sciences such as astronomy or geology, a predicted observation might be more appropriate. When

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9238-410: Is used to summarise and analyse data, which allows scientists to assess the reliability of experimental results. In the scientific method an explanatory thought experiment or hypothesis is put forward as an explanation using parsimony principles and is expected to seek consilience  – fitting with other accepted facts related to an observation or scientific question. This tentative explanation

9387-632: The Byzantine empire and Arabic translations were done by groups such as the Nestorians and the Monophysites . Under the Caliphate , these Arabic translations were later improved and developed by Arabic scientists. By the 6th and 7th centuries, the neighbouring Sassanid Empire established the medical Academy of Gondeshapur , which is considered by Greek, Syriac, and Persian physicians as

9536-740: The Early Middle Ages (400 to 1000 CE), but in the Medieval renaissances ( Carolingian Renaissance , Ottonian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century ) scholarship flourished again. Some Greek manuscripts lost in Western Europe were preserved and expanded upon in the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age , along with the later efforts of Byzantine Greek scholars who brought Greek manuscripts from

9685-609: The Proto-Italic language as * skije- or * skijo- meaning "to know", which may originate from Proto-Indo-European language as *skh 1 -ie , *skh 1 -io , meaning "to incise". The Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben proposed sciō is a back-formation of nescīre , meaning "to not know, be unfamiliar with", which may derive from Proto-Indo-European *sekH- in Latin secāre , or *skh 2 - , from *sḱʰeh2(i)- meaning "to cut". In

9834-411: The acronym HIPPO for the main causes of biodiversity loss: H abitat destruction, I nvasive species, P ollution, human over- P opulation and O ver-harvesting . Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved to elsewhere or are dead, leading to

9983-561: The camera obscura and the telescope . At the start of the Renaissance, Roger Bacon , Vitello , and John Peckham each built up a scholastic ontology upon a causal chain beginning with sensation, perception, and finally apperception of the individual and universal forms of Aristotle. A model of vision later known as perspectivism was exploited and studied by the artists of the Renaissance. This theory uses only three of Aristotle's four causes: formal, material, and final. In

10132-442: The effects of climate change . An additional cause that may be specific to insects is light pollution (research in that area is ongoing). Scientists have studied loss of earthworms from several long-term agronomic trials. They found that relative biomass losses of minus 50–100% (with a mean of minus 83 %) match or exceed those reported for other faunal groups. Thus it is clear that earthworms are similarly depleted in

10281-424: The historical method , case studies , and cross-cultural studies . Moreover, if quantitative information is available, social scientists may rely on statistical approaches to better understand social relationships and processes. Formal science is an area of study that generates knowledge using formal systems . A formal system is an abstract structure used for inferring theorems from axioms according to

10430-431: The materialistic sense of having more food, clothing, and other things. In Bacon's words , "the real and legitimate goal of sciences is the endowment of human life with new inventions and riches ", and he discouraged scientists from pursuing intangible philosophical or spiritual ideas, which he believed contributed little to human happiness beyond "the fume of subtle, sublime or pleasing [speculation]". Science during

10579-525: The planetary boundaries too far. These activities include habitat destruction (for example deforestation ) and land use intensification (for example monoculture farming). Further problem areas are air and water pollution (including nutrient pollution ), over-exploitation , invasive species and climate change . Many scientists, along with the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services , say that

10728-499: The prevention , diagnosis , and treatment of injury or disease. The applied sciences are often contrasted with the basic sciences , which are focused on advancing scientific theories and laws that explain and predict events in the natural world. Computational science applies computing power to simulate real-world situations, enabling a better understanding of scientific problems than formal mathematics alone can achieve. The use of machine learning and artificial intelligence

10877-588: The protected areas with rich biodiversity were in areas containing unexploited fossil fuel reserves worth between $ 3 and $ 15 trillion. The protected areas may be under threat in future. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to replenish. The term applies to natural resources such as water aquifers , grazing pastures and forests , wild medicinal plants , fish stocks and other wildlife . A 2019 Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services report found that overfishing

11026-487: The theory of impetus . His criticism served as an inspiration to medieval scholars and Galileo Galilei, who extensively cited his works ten centuries later. During late antiquity and the early Middle Ages , natural phenomena were mainly examined via the Aristotelian approach. The approach includes Aristotle's four causes : material, formal, moving, and final cause. Many Greek classical texts were preserved by

11175-406: The 13th century, medical teachers and students at Bologna began opening human bodies, leading to the first anatomy textbook based on human dissection by Mondino de Luzzi . New developments in optics played a role in the inception of the Renaissance , both by challenging long-held metaphysical ideas on perception, as well as by contributing to the improvement and development of technology such as

11324-717: The 14th century in the sense of "the state of knowing". The word was borrowed from the Anglo-Norman language as the suffix -cience , which was borrowed from the Latin word scientia , meaning "knowledge, awareness, understanding". It is a noun derivative of the Latin sciens meaning "knowing", and undisputedly derived from the Latin sciō , the present participle scīre , meaning "to know". There are many hypotheses for science ' s ultimate word origin. According to Michiel de Vaan , Dutch linguist and Indo-Europeanist , sciō may have its origin in

11473-444: The 16th century by describing and classifying plants, animals, minerals, and other biotic beings. Today, "natural history" suggests observational descriptions aimed at popular audiences. Social science is the study of human behaviour and the functioning of societies. It has many disciplines that include, but are not limited to anthropology , economics, history, human geography , political science , psychology, and sociology. In

11622-646: The 1930s, the eelgrass limpet ( Lottia alveus ) became extinct in the Atlantic once the Zostera marina seagrass population declined upon exposure to a disease. The Lottia alveus were greatly impacted because the Zostera marina were their sole habitats. The main causes of current biodiversity loss are: Jared Diamond describes an "Evil Quartet" of habitat destruction , overkill , introduced species and secondary extinctions . Edward O. Wilson suggested

11771-631: The 1950s through 1970s scientific diving in the U.S. was conducted by various organizations using similar but informal self-regulated standards. Professor George Bass of Texas A & M University pioneered the field of underwater archaeology from 1960, mostly in the Mediterranean In 1975 the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America petitioned for an emergency temporary standard be issued with respect to occupational diving operations. The ETS issued on June 15, 1976

11920-441: The 1990s, which has opened up learning about an extended range of ecological zones and their biota. Work on international nature research often includes volunteer divers acting as citizen scientists, who gather observational data and record the changing underwater environment. Much of this is done as recreational divers, as part of distributed projects, but they may also be directly involved in scientific diving operations where this

12069-413: The 20th century. Many car drivers know this anecdotal evidence through the windscreen phenomenon , for example. Causes for the decline in insect population are similar to those driving other biodiversity loss. They include habitat destruction , such as intensive agriculture , the use of pesticides (particularly insecticides ), introduced species , and – to a lesser degree and only for some regions –

12218-633: The 3rd millennium BCE, the ancient Egyptians developed a decimal numbering system , solved practical problems using geometry , and developed a calendar . Their healing therapies involved drug treatments and the supernatural, such as prayers, incantations , and rituals. The ancient Mesopotamians used knowledge about the properties of various natural chemicals for manufacturing pottery , faience , glass, soap, metals, lime plaster , and waterproofing. They studied animal physiology , anatomy , behaviour , and astrology for divinatory purposes. The Mesopotamians had an intense interest in medicine and

12367-746: The CMAS Scientific Committee. There is a project to harmonise the status of scientific diving in Europe by the European Scientific Diving Panel based on the European Scientific Diver and Advanced European Scientific Diver qualifications, which is intended to allow mobility of scientific divers and operations throughout Europe. The UK HSE divides activities broadly included in the field into media, scientific, and archaeological diving . In several countries diving for research purposes

12516-404: The Enlightenment was dominated by scientific societies and academies , which had largely replaced universities as centres of scientific research and development. Societies and academies were the backbones of the maturation of the scientific profession. Another important development was the popularisation of science among an increasingly literate population. Enlightenment philosophers turned to

12665-653: The Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity , whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes, while further advancements, including the introduction of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system , were made during the Golden Age of India . Scientific research deteriorated in these regions after the fall of the Western Roman Empire during

12814-410: The Greek philosopher Leucippus and his student Democritus . Later, Epicurus would develop a full natural cosmology based on atomism, and would adopt a "canon" (ruler, standard) which established physical criteria or standards of scientific truth. The Greek doctor Hippocrates established the tradition of systematic medical science and is known as " The Father of Medicine ". A turning point in

12963-458: The Milesian school, which was founded by Thales of Miletus and later continued by his successors Anaximander and Anaximenes , were the first to attempt to explain natural phenomena without relying on the supernatural . The Pythagoreans developed a complex number philosophy and contributed significantly to the development of mathematical science. The theory of atoms was developed by

13112-555: The Origin of Species , published in 1859. Separately, Gregor Mendel presented his paper, " Experiments on Plant Hybridization " in 1865, which outlined the principles of biological inheritance, serving as the basis for modern genetics. Early in the 19th century John Dalton suggested the modern atomic theory , based on Democritus's original idea of indivisible particles called atoms . The laws of conservation of energy , conservation of momentum and conservation of mass suggested

13261-521: The San Diego coast in 1944. In 1947, Frank Haymaker made observations in Scripps Canyon using a similar surface-supplied diving helmet. In 1949 Conrad Limbaugh introduced scientific scuba diving at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. While a doctoral student in 1954 he became Scripps' first diving safety officer , his research diving course was the first civilian diver training programme in

13410-400: The U.S. and he wrote the first scientific diving manual. Limbaugh and researcher Andreas Rechnitzer purchased an Aqua-lung when they became available, and taught themselves to use it, as no formal training was available. They introduced the equipment to Scripps researchers in 1950, and it was found suitable for making direct observations and to conduct experiments underwater. In 1951, after

13559-550: The U.S. in surface supplied shallow water helmets and standard diving dress . During WWII Jacques Cousteau and Frédéric Dumas used the Aqua-Lung for underwater archaeology to excavate a large mound of amphorae near Grand Congloué , an island near Marseilles. The first scientific diver at Scripps Institution of Oceanography was Cheng Kwai Tseng, a biologist from China and graduate student during World War II, who used Japanese surface-supplied equipment to collect algae off

13708-492: The Wild." Possible solutions can be found in some silvicultural methods of forest management that promote tree biodiversity, such as selective logging, thinning or crop tree management, and clear cutting and coppicing . Without solutions, secondary forests recovery in species richness can take 50 years to recover the same amount as the primary forest, or 20 years to recover 80% of species richness. Human impact on

13857-472: The advent of writing systems in early civilisations like Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia , creating the earliest written records in the history of science in around 3000 to 1200 BCE . Although the words and concepts of "science" and "nature" were not part of the conceptual landscape at the time, the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians made contributions that would later find a place in Greek and medieval science: mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. From

14006-445: The benthic boundary layer. In situ assessments by scientific divers remain the most flexible tool for exploring this habitat and allow precise and optimised location of instruments. The capacity to dive under polar ice provides an opportunity to advance science in a restricted environment at relatively low cost. A small number of holes in the ice can provide access over a large area and high levels of experimental replication. Divers are

14155-405: The causes of amphibian declines are still poorly understood, and the topic is currently a subject of ongoing research. Biomass of mammals on Earth as of 2018 The decline of wild mammal populations globally has been an occurrence spanning over the past 50,000 years, at the same time as the populations of humans and livestock have increased. Nowadays, the total biomass of wild mammals on land

14304-398: The combination of two or more disciplines into one, such as bioinformatics , a combination of biology and computer science or cognitive sciences . The concept has existed since the ancient Greek period and it became popular again in the 20th century. Scientific research can be labelled as either basic or applied research. Basic research is the search for knowledge and applied research

14453-421: The corals last refuge from the warming of surface waters. The current knowledge of the functioning of the ecologically and economically important hard-bottom communities in the shallow water coastal zones is both limited and particularly difficult to study due to poor accessibility for surface operated instrumentation as a result of topographic and structural complexity which inhibit remote sampling of organisms in

14602-487: The course of employment may be regulated by occupational safety legislation, or may be exempted as self-regulated by a recognised body. The safety record has generally been good. Collection of scientific data by volunteers outside of employment is generally considered to legally be recreational diving. Training standards vary throughout the world, and are generally higher than for entry level recreational diving, and in some cases identical to commercial diver training. There are

14751-610: The course of tens of thousands of years, taking different forms around the world, and few details are known about the very earliest developments. Women likely played a central role in prehistoric science, as did religious rituals . Some scholars use the term " protoscience " to label activities in the past that resemble modern science in some but not all features; however, this label has also been criticised as denigrating, or too suggestive of presentism , thinking about those activities only in relation to modern categories. Direct evidence for scientific processes becomes clearer with

14900-574: The death of two of their scientific divers, Scripps decided that there was a need for formalized scientific diver training, and in 1954 instituted the first formal scientific diving program in the U.S. At the request of the University of California Office of the President, the divers at Scripps developed the first "University Guide for Diving Safety," which was initially published in March 1967. In

15049-505: The discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel and Marie Curie in 1896, Marie Curie then became the first person to win two Nobel Prizes . In the next year came the discovery of the first subatomic particle, the electron . In the first half of the century the development of antibiotics and artificial fertilisers improved human living standards globally. Harmful environmental issues such as ozone depletion , ocean acidification , eutrophication , and climate change came to

15198-431: The distance along the bottom with the arms. Skilled underwater navigators use techniques from both of these categories in a seamless combination, using the compass to navigate between landmarks over longer distances and in poor visibility, while making use of the generic oceanographic indicators to help stay on course and as a check that there is no mistake with the bearing, and then recognising landmarks and using them with

15347-494: The distribution and abundance of prey species, which can then impact predator populations. Fossil fuel extraction and associated oil and gas pipelines have major impacts on the biodiversity of many biomes due to land conversion, habitat loss and degradation, and pollution. An example is the Western Amazon region. Exploitation of fossil fuels there has had significant impacts on biodiversity. As of 2018, many of

15496-520: The dive site, and the organisation assumes the duty of care of an employer. The first recorded U.S. scientific diver was Dr. William H. Longley , starting in 1910, and who made the first underwater colour photograph with National Geographic staff photographer Charles Martin in 1926 off the Florida Keys in the Gulf of Mexico. By the middle of the 20th century scientific diving was being done around

15645-402: The diver's finning technique and equipment, but are generally more reliable than time, which is critically dependent on speed, or air consumption, which is critically dependent on depth, work rate, diver fitness, and equipment drag. Techniques for direct measurement also vary, from the use of calibrated distance lines or surveyor's tape measures, to a mechanism like an impeller log , to pacing off

15794-526: The dying Byzantine Empire to Western Europe at the start of the Renaissance . The recovery and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic inquiries into Western Europe from the 10th to 13th century revived " natural philosophy ", which was later transformed by the Scientific Revolution that began in the 16th century as new ideas and discoveries departed from previous Greek conceptions and traditions. The scientific method soon played

15943-596: The earliest medical prescriptions appeared in Sumerian during the Third Dynasty of Ur . They seem to have studied scientific subjects which had practical or religious applications and had little interest in satisfying curiosity. In classical antiquity , there is no real ancient analogue of a modern scientist. Instead, well-educated, usually upper-class, and almost universally male individuals performed various investigations into nature whenever they could afford

16092-436: The environment has driven a range of species extinct and is threatening even more today . Multiple organizations such as IUCN and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew suggest that around 40% of plant species are threatened with extinction. The majority are threatened by habitat loss , but activities such as logging of wild timber trees and collection of medicinal plants, or the introduction of non-native invasive species , also play

16241-462: The free energy of the universe is seen as constantly declining: the entropy of a closed universe increases over time. The electromagnetic theory was established in the 19th century by the works of Hans Christian Ørsted , André-Marie Ampère , Michael Faraday , James Clerk Maxwell , Oliver Heaviside , and Heinrich Hertz . The new theory raised questions that could not easily be answered using Newton's framework. The discovery of X-rays inspired

16390-425: The frequent use of precision instruments; the emergence of terms such as "biologist", "physicist", and "scientist"; an increased professionalisation of those studying nature; scientists gaining cultural authority over many dimensions of society; the industrialisation of numerous countries; the thriving of popular science writings; and the emergence of science journals. During the late 19th century, psychology emerged as

16539-450: The full context and detail available to the diver. Scuba allows the scientist to set up the experiment and be present to observe unforeseen alternatives to the hypothesis. The field of global change biology includes investigation of evidence relating to global warming and ocean acidification. Many of the measurable changes in global climate occur in the sea. Coral bleaching is an example of an indicator of change, and scuba diving has provided

16688-422: The functioning and biodiversity of terrestrial as well as aquatic ecosystems. For example, "air pollution causes or contributes to acidification of lakes, eutrophication of estuaries and coastal waters, and mercury bioaccumulation in aquatic food webs". Noise generated by traffic, ships, vehicles, and aircraft can affect the survivability of wildlife species and can reach undisturbed habitats. Noise pollution

16837-530: The genes of the human genome . The first induced pluripotent human stem cells were made in 2006, allowing adult cells to be transformed into stem cells and turn into any cell type found in the body. With the affirmation of the Higgs boson discovery in 2013, the last particle predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics was found. In 2015, gravitational waves , predicted by general relativity

16986-431: The heliocentric model. The printing press was widely used to publish scholarly arguments, including some that disagreed widely with contemporary ideas of nature. Francis Bacon and René Descartes published philosophical arguments in favour of a new type of non-Aristotelian science. Bacon emphasised the importance of experiment over contemplation, questioned the Aristotelian concepts of formal and final cause, promoted

17135-562: The history of early philosophical science was Socrates ' example of applying philosophy to the study of human matters, including human nature, the nature of political communities, and human knowledge itself. The Socratic method as documented by Plato 's dialogues is a dialectic method of hypothesis elimination: better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those that lead to contradictions. The Socratic method searches for general commonly-held truths that shape beliefs and scrutinises them for consistency. Socrates criticised

17284-557: The idea that science should study the laws of nature and the improvement of all human life. Descartes emphasised individual thought and argued that mathematics rather than geometry should be used to study nature. At the start of the Age of Enlightenment , Isaac Newton formed the foundation of classical mechanics by his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica , greatly influencing future physicists. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz incorporated terms from Aristotelian physics , now used in

17433-534: The last several decades. These tend to be directly or indirectly connected to climate change and can cause a deterioration of forest ecosystems. Groups that care about the environment have been working for many years to stop the decrease in biodiversity. Nowadays, many global policies include activities to stop biodiversity loss. For example, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity aims to prevent biodiversity loss and to conserve wilderness areas . However,

17582-514: The late 20th century active recruitment of women and elimination of sex discrimination greatly increased the number of women scientists, but large gender disparities remained in some fields. The discovery of the cosmic microwave background in 1964 led to a rejection of the steady-state model of the universe in favour of the Big Bang theory of Georges Lemaître . The century saw fundamental changes within science disciplines. Evolution became

17731-479: The level of genetic or taxonomic diversity they formerly could while some more sensitive species may become locally extinct. Species abundance populations are reduced due to the reduced fragmented area of habitat. This causes an increase of species isolation and forces species toward edge habitats and to adapt to foraging elsewhere. Infrastructure development in Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA)

17880-619: The lowest trophic level require increased conservation to reduce negative impacts at higher trophic levels. In 2022, scientists warned that a third of tree species are threatened with extinction. This will significantly alter the world's ecosystems because their carbon, water and nutrient cycles will be affected. Forest areas are degraded due to common factors such as logging, fire, and firewood harvesting. The GTA (global tree assessment) has determined that "17,510 (29.9%) tree species are considered threatened with extinction. In addition, there are 142 tree species recorded as Extinct or Extinct in

18029-406: The main reason for biodiversity loss is a growing human population because this leads to human overpopulation and excessive consumption . Others disagree, saying that loss of habitat is caused mainly by "the growth of commodities for export" and that population has very little to do with overall consumption. More important are wealth disparities between and within countries. Climate change

18178-626: The most important medical center of the ancient world. The House of Wisdom was established in Abbasid -era Baghdad , Iraq , where the Islamic study of Aristotelianism flourished until the Mongol invasions in the 13th century. Ibn al-Haytham , better known as Alhazen, used controlled experiments in his optical study. Avicenna 's compilation of the Canon of Medicine , a medical encyclopaedia,

18327-424: The most numerous and widespread class in the animal kingdom , accounting for up to 90% of all animal species. In the 2010s, reports emerged about the widespread decline in insect populations across multiple insect orders . The reported severity shocked many observers, even though there had been earlier findings of pollinator decline . There has also been anecdotal reports of greater insect abundance earlier in

18476-672: The notion that the only function of the eye is perception, and shifted the main focus in optics from the eye to the propagation of light. Kepler is best known, however, for improving Copernicus' heliocentric model through the discovery of Kepler's laws of planetary motion . Kepler did not reject Aristotelian metaphysics and described his work as a search for the Harmony of the Spheres . Galileo had made significant contributions to astronomy, physics and engineering. However, he became persecuted after Pope Urban VIII sentenced him for writing about

18625-593: The ocean or in estuaries . By 2018, approximately 240,000 marine species had been documented. But many marine species—estimates range between 178,000 and 10 million oceanic species—remain to be described. It is therefore likely that a number of rare species (not seen for decades in the wild) have already disappeared or are on the brink of extinction, unnoticed. Human activities have a strong and detrimental influence on marine biodiversity. The main drivers of marine species extinction are habitat loss, pollution, invasive species , and overexploitation. Greater pressure

18774-450: The older type of study of physics as too purely speculative and lacking in self-criticism . Aristotle in the 4th century BCE created a systematic program of teleological philosophy. In the 3rd century BCE, Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos was the first to propose a heliocentric model of the universe, with the Sun at the centre and all the planets orbiting it. Aristarchus's model

18923-611: The past, science was a synonym for "knowledge" or "study", in keeping with its Latin origin. A person who conducted scientific research was called a "natural philosopher" or "man of science". In 1834, William Whewell introduced the term scientist in a review of Mary Somerville 's book On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences , crediting it to "some ingenious gentleman" (possibly himself). Science has no single origin. Rather, systematic methods emerged gradually over

19072-575: The permanence of the record allows peer and expert review. Such projects include the Australian-based Reef Life Survey , and the more international iNaturalist project, based in California, which is only partly focused on marine species. In most cases diving for citizen science purposes is not considered occupational diving and therefore does not fall under the occupational health and safety regulations, as each diver

19221-548: The planned experiment. Human dexterity remains less expensive and more adaptable to unexpected complexities in experimental setup than remotely operated and robotic alternatives in the shallower depth ranges. Scuba has also provided insights which would be unlikely to occur without direct observation, where hypotheses produced by deductive reasoning have not predicted interactive and behavioural characteristics of marine organisms, and these would not be likely to be detected from remote sensing or video or other methods which do not provide

19370-532: The pollutants sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides . Once sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide are introduced into the atmosphere, they can react with cloud droplets ( cloud condensation nuclei ), raindrops, or snowflakes, forming sulfuric acid and nitric acid . With the interaction between water droplets and sulfuric and nitric acids, wet deposition occurs and creates acid rain . A 2009 review studied four air pollutants (sulfur, nitrogen, ozone, and mercury) and several types of ecosystems. Air pollution affects

19519-573: The public's attention and caused the onset of environmental studies . During this period scientific experimentation became increasingly larger in scale and funding . The extensive technological innovation stimulated by World War I , World War II , and the Cold War led to competitions between global powers , such as the Space Race and nuclear arms race . Substantial international collaborations were also made, despite armed conflicts. In

19668-438: The remembered topography of a familiar site to confirm position. Guide lines, also known as guidelines, cave lines, distance lines , penetration lines and jackstays are permanent or temporary lines laid by divers to mark a route, particularly in caves, wrecks and other areas where the way out from an overhead environment may not be obvious. Guide lines are also useful in the event of silt out . Science Science

19817-475: The restoration of ecosystems and biodiversity. In the 2010s over 80% of all global farmland was used to rear animals. As of 2022, 44% of Earth's land area required conservation attention, which may include declaring protected areas and following land-use policies . Air pollution adversely affects biodiversity. Pollutants are emitted into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels and biomass , for example. Industrial and agricultural activity releases

19966-481: The results might be. Taken in its entirety, the scientific method allows for highly creative problem solving while minimising the effects of subjective and confirmation bias . Intersubjective verifiability , the ability to reach a consensus and reproduce results, is fundamental to the creation of all scientific knowledge. Biodiversity loss Biodiversity loss happens when plant or animal species disappear completely from Earth ( extinction ) or when there

20115-590: The scientific community is not well recorded. A bibliographic analysis of papers published between 1995 and 2006 that have been supported by scientific diving shows that diving supports scientific research through efficient and targeted sampling. Activities include collection of organisms and biological samples, observing animal behaviour, quantitative surveys, in situ measurements, impact studies, ecological analyses, evaluation of techniques, mapping underwater areas, profiling geology, and deploying and retrieving underwater equipment. A comparison of database searches against

20264-478: The scientist is primarily there to gather data, and the diving is of secondary importance, as the way to get to the worksite. The requirements for qualification as a scientific diver vary with jurisdiction. The European Scientific Diver (ESD) standard is reasonably representative: Competence in work methods common to scientific projects: Underwater navigation by divers is broadly split into three categories. Natural navigation techniques, and orienteering , which

20413-453: The seminal encyclopaedia Natural History . Positional notation for representing numbers likely emerged between the 3rd and 5th centuries CE along Indian trade routes. This numeral system made efficient arithmetic operations more accessible and would eventually become standard for mathematics worldwide. Due to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire , the 5th century saw an intellectual decline and knowledge of Greek conceptions of

20562-507: The simultaneous halving of plant biomass, these striking declines are considered part of the prehistoric phase of the Holocene extinction . Some pesticides , like insecticides , likely play a role in reducing the populations of specific bird species. According to a study funded by BirdLife International , 51 bird species are critically endangered and eight could be classified as extinct or in danger of extinction. Nearly 30% of extinction

20711-503: The site or damage to artifacts. It was observed that personal intervention by the scientist allowed more accurately targeted observations and less incidental damage compared to blind sampling from the surface, and that the observation of the subject by the scientist can provide valuable and often unexpected data. There are also phenomena and organisms that are difficult or impossible to observe except by being there, and places that are difficult to access other than by going there in person. It

20860-577: The sixteenth century Nicolaus Copernicus formulated a heliocentric model of the Solar System, stating that the planets revolve around the Sun, instead of the geocentric model where the planets and the Sun revolve around the Earth. This was based on a theorem that the orbital periods of the planets are longer as their orbs are farther from the centre of motion, which he found not to agree with Ptolemy's model. Johannes Kepler and others challenged

21009-405: The social sciences, there are many competing theoretical perspectives, many of which are extended through competing research programs such as the functionalists , conflict theorists , and interactionists in sociology. Due to the limitations of conducting controlled experiments involving large groups of individuals or complex situations, social scientists may adopt other research methods such as

21158-460: The soil and plant roots that earthworms use to create their biomass. This interferes with carbon and nitrogen cycles . Knowledge of earthworm species diversity is quite limited as not even 50% of them have been described. Sustainable agriculture methods could help prevent earthworm diversity decline, for example reduced tillage. The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity

21307-536: The soils of fields used for intensive agriculture. Earthworms play an important role in ecosystem function, helping with biological processing in soil, water, and even greenhouse gas balancing. There are five reasons for the decline of earthworm diversity: "(1) soil degradation and habitat loss, (2) climate change, (3) excessive nutrient and other forms of contamination load, (4) over-exploitation and unsustainable management of soil, and (5) invasive species". Factors like tillage practices and intensive land use decimate

21456-476: The time. Before the invention or discovery of the concept of phusis or nature by the pre-Socratic philosophers , the same words tend to be used to describe the natural "way" in which a plant grows, and the "way" in which, for example, one tribe worships a particular god. For this reason, it is claimed that these men were the first philosophers in the strict sense and the first to clearly distinguish "nature" and "convention". The early Greek philosophers of

21605-484: The world deteriorated in Western Europe. During the period, Latin encyclopaedists such as Isidore of Seville preserved the majority of general ancient knowledge. In contrast, because the Byzantine Empire resisted attacks from invaders, they were able to preserve and improve prior learning. John Philoponus , a Byzantine scholar in the 500s, started to question Aristotle's teaching of physics, introducing

21754-651: The world is covered with biodiversity loss hotspots, and even though only a small percentage of the world is covered in hotspots, it host a large fraction (50%) of vascular plant species. In 2021, about 28 percent of the 134,400 species assessed using the IUCN Red List criteria are now listed as threatened with extinction —a total of 37,400 species compared to 16,119 threatened species in 2006. A 2022 study that surveyed more than 3,000 experts found that "global biodiversity loss and its impacts may be greater than previously thought", and estimated that roughly 30% of species "have been globally threatened or driven extinct since

21903-491: The year 1500." Research published in 2023 found that, out of 70,000 species, about 48% are facing decreasing populations due to human activities, while only 3% are seeing an increase in populations. Biologists define biodiversity as the "totality of genes , species and ecosystems of a region". To measure biodiversity loss rates for a particular location, scientists record the species richness and its variation over time in that area. In ecology , local abundance

22052-673: Was to be effective from July 15, 1976 but was challenged in the US Court of Appeals by several diving contractors, and was withdrawn in November 1976. A permanent standard for commercial diving became effective on 20 October 1977, but it did not consider the needs of scientific diving. The scientific diving community was unable to operate as previously, and in 1977 united to form the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) After extensive negotiation and congressional hearings,

22201-511: Was widely rejected because it was believed to violate the laws of physics, while Ptolemy's Almagest , which contains a geocentric description of the Solar System , was accepted through the early Renaissance instead. The inventor and mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse made major contributions to the beginnings of calculus . Pliny the Elder was a Roman writer and polymath, who wrote

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