The Nature of Science

My view of how science should be taught was shaped partly by a walk in the woods I took one time with my husband Jim shortly after we were married. As we walked along, Jim would point casually to a tree or some other plant and readily name it and tell me something about it. … Continue reading


Sherlock Holmes & the Left Hand of God

Does a natural explanation always disprove a supernatural one? It is said that for many years the Abbey National Building Society employed a full-time secretary at 221B Baker Street in London to answer mail that was addressed to Sherlock Holmes, the legendary but fictional detective created by Arthur Conan Doyle. So real did Holmes seem … Continue reading


Knowing What Nature Is

Manifestum est enim quod homo per intellectum cognoscere potest naturas omnium corporum, said St. Thomas Aquinas: “For it is manifest that man is able to know physical things through the intellect.” The truth that the human mind is able to know the natures of all bodily things may indeed be manifest, as St. Thomas Aquinas … Continue reading


Science in the Classical School

  Science education sometimes creates a quandary for classical educators. Its origins in the West are from Greek philosophy (for example, Aristotle developed genera and species and other classifications for plants and animals), but with the possible exception of astronomy, science is not explicitly included in the seven liberal arts and therefore has been considered … Continue reading


Does Science Explain Anything?

In the old natural philosophy, the purpose of inquiry into nature was to better know what creation is. It taught nomenclature (the names of things), taxonomy (how the thing fits in with other things), morphology (how things are internally structured), and scientific method (how to investigate natural things). It was focused on the wonder and … Continue reading


Why Johnny Can’t Add

My father was an aerospace engineer. When I was growing up, I never really knew what he did, since his job involved mostly top-secret projects. In fact, I never once visited his office, which required a high-security clearance even to enter. But over the years, I did manage to piece together a few facts about what he did. One day, when … Continue reading


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