Comments
6 CommentsThere's no universal symbol for science/scientific method. Is that good or bad, irrelevant or thought-worthy? I can't say I'm sure, but I know that I've often wanted to put an symbol on something I'm doing to instantly convey "This is about science and/or depends on the scientific method".
I'm very logo/symbol oriented. Not purely due to aesthetic value, but because a visual symbol can summarize and mediate such vast knowledge in a split second. Obviously, science is incredibly diverse — which is probably the reason that no symbol exists. It's hard to "brand" something that refers to so many things. But even so, I think it's an interesting question, if only for a day here on 9r.
I can imagine that it could be used to mark Scientific categories, like the science category here on 9rules for example. Or in libraries, etc.
Could we benefit from a symbol for science, or would it serve no purpose? (what visual image springs to mind when you think "Science"?)
RightOn
Written Nov. 9, 2007 / Report /
I didn't know there were universal symbols for other disciplines etc...
examples?
estarla
Written Nov. 9, 2007 / Report /
For the medical practice it is the two-snake staff of Asclepius, I believe.
I think Science is such a broad category that each sub-study that falls under it (for example: astronomy) has its own symbol that you could find. This is a shot in the dark, but I might think that "science" is more of the method of discovery and so each branch dates back to different time periods with their own pioneers in their areas ... and therefore went about their own ways coming up with a symbol to represent the whole context of their studies. Like you said, hthth, it's really diverse. :)
RightOn
Written Nov. 9, 2007 / Report /
Ahhhh, yes... the Snake thing :)
hthth
Written Nov. 9, 2007 / Report /
@RightOn
You're right, there's generally no actual comittee determined symbol. But each large category does tend to have a visual aspect to it that is commonly used to convey meaning (ie. computer silhouette for Computers, paintbrush for Art).
With regards to science, some fields are very close to universal acceptance. Like the letter Psi for psychology. Or the double-helix for genetics.
Edit: Ah, yeah Esther! Completely forgot about that.
hthth
Written Nov. 9, 2007 / Report /
Yeah. Agree, but I think the Scientific Method (which all the different branches of science adhere to) could, if it served a purpose, be given a symbol. Despite the diversity of its applications. If we Google images for the Scientific method, we get a lot of flowcharts portraying the method. In a way, those charts are already symbol for science, but not exactly the logo-type symbol I was referring to. Heh.
Scrivs
Written May. 27, 2008 / Report /
This is one of those things I would have never thought about, but then again Science is so broad can you have one symbol? I mean you have chemistry, biology and physics just to start off.