What makes a person a scientist? Does he have ways or tools of learning that are different from those
of others?
The answer is"no". It isn't the tools a scientist uses but how he uses these tools that makes him a
scientist. You will probably agree that knowing how to use a power is important to a carpenter(木匠).
You will probably agree,too,that knowing how to investigate(调查) ,how to discover information,is
important to everyone. The scientist,however,goes one step further;he must be sure that he has a
reasonable answer to his questions and that his answer he gets to many questions is into a large set of
ideas about how the world works.
The scientist's knowledge must be exact. There's no room for half right or right just half the time. He
must be as nearly right as the conditions permit. What works under one set of conditions at one time must work under the same conditions at other times. If the conditions are different,any changes the scientist
observes in a demonstration(实证) must be explained by the changes in the conditions. This is one reason why investigations are important in science. Albert Einstein,who developed the Theory of Relativity,
amved at this theory through mathematics. The accuracy (正确性) of his mathematics was later tested
through investigation. Einstein's ideas were proved to be correct. A scientist uses many tools for
measurements. Then the measurements are used to make mathematical calculations (计算) that may test
his investigations.