Wikipedia:WikiProject Science

"If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?"

- Albert Einstein

Scope and goals

This WikiProject aims primarily to coordinate the efforts of Wikipedians who are knowledgeable about Science in an effort to improve the general quality of Wikipedia articles on scientific topics. It is motivated by the belief that a good scientific article should be understandable by the "general public", as well as interesting to the scientifically inclined.

Thus, the goals of this WikiProject are as follows:

To attract Wikipedians to the cause, and focus the effort for maximum efficiency
To serve as a nexus and discussion area to build consensus on how to write good scientific articles.

How you can help

Anybody can help ! Beginners can review and edit the article's introduction, while experts will contribute to the technical sections.

Improve and discuss the proposed structures of articles (see below)
Contribute to the article "To do's"
Restructure existing articles according to the proposed structure
Otherwise make any proposal towards the goal of writing understandable and interesting articles
Sign the Guest Book below, and add this page to your watchlist to see what is going on
Perform some of the Open Tasks

Thanks for helping out !

Proposed structure of articles

See first Wikipedia:How to structure the content of an article for general principles.

Accordingly, we propose that the first part of article should be targeted to the general public, while the second part should be targeted to the scientifically inclined.

Proposed structure for scientific theories and discoveries:

Explanation accessible to the general public.
- What field is the theory/discovery in?
- What other theories/discoveries is it related to, and how?
- How is it significant ? What does it help solve ? What are its successes ?
- Is it known to be incomplete or incorrect? (Consider Newton's laws, relativity, quantum mechanics, etc.)
- Are there competing contemporary schools of thought and/or individuals or groups who should be noted as primary architects or discoverers?
- Pictures and diagrams are most helpful here
Applications
- What is the impact on every day life?
- What are the economic or political implications
Full technical explanation
- It's fine to add equations and supporting technical material here.
- Full discussion of limitations, unsolved problems, and proposed replacement theories (or links thereto).
History
- Consider making this a separate article for longer pieces, or making a common history article that several related theories/discoveries can use in common, rather than re-telling the same story over and over again.
- Describe how the modern theory came about.
- Consider previous theories, discoveries, and beliefs.
- Consider the points raised by Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Proposed structure for scientific concepts (temperature, atom, electric current, ...):

Explanation accessible to the general public.
- What theory is the concept used in?
- What other concepts is it related to, and how ?
- How is it significant ? What does it help solve ?
- Is it known to be incomplete or incorrect?
- Are there any individuals who should be noted as primary theoricians of the concept?
- Pictures and diagrams are most helpful here
Applications of the concept
- Describe its use in significant theories or technologies
- Describe how it is measured or experimented
- Describe the range of values that can be observed, or significant values
Full theoretical explanation of the concept
- Position it in the theory
- Describe the sub-elements of the concepts
History
- Describe how the concept came about
- Consider previous concepts, and their limitations.

Proposed structure for scientific biographies

Introduction
- birthdate, death, briefly what is this scientist best known for
Research? -some biographies would do better if Biography and Research are combined
- Contributions to his or her feild of study, major experiments and theories
Biography -chronological order of life history
- Birthplace and early life
- Where he/she was educated
- Life outside of science (eg political activism, military service)
- Positions held and awards
- Cause and place of death
Bibliography
- Do not include all papers, only major papers and books
References

Proposed structure for scientific instruments (none yet, but could be similar to the one for discoveries)

Proposed structure for scientific reference articles (none yet)

Please consult other scientific WikiProjects for proposed structures for chemical elements, particles, etc. or for space, chemistry, etc.

Articles we like

Cold fusion, quantum mechanics, insert one here

Article "To do's"

To achieve our goal of intelligibility and completeness, we add tasks to the "To do" list of scientific articles that need more work. We use the collaboration mechanism described in Wikipedia:To-do list.

Please check regularly the list of articles with To do's (or the same list by priority) and contribute !

Here is a sample of the top priority articles and their To do's:

Frequency

Restructure according to guidelines in Wikipedia:WikiProject Science, ie. with the following sections:

Introduction : add daily life examples (music, vibration, radio, light)
Frequency in practice
- Types of frequencies: in statistics, frequency modulation, of waves
- Units of frequency: Hz, per day,...
- Frequency in everyday life : give examples with typical values: heartbeat, light, radio, sound, computer clock ...
- Frequency in industry: how to generate various frequencies
- Frequency in science: how to measure it, interferometry
Frequency in theory: period, wavelength, relation to energy in quantum theory, Fourier Transform, frequency of interferences, ...
History of frequency : cps → Hertz, relation to quanta, ...

Light

Restructure according to the guidelines proposed in Wikipedia:WikiProject Science, ie. with the following main sections:

Introduction : importance of light for life and humans; brief history of the understanding of light; sources of light (man-made or natural)
Light in practice: (avoid theory here)
- Types of light: normal(incandscent, fluorescent) HID (football stadium lights) New eco-watt fluorescent lights and how they change they way colors look., laser; visible vs infrared
- Properties of light: Spectral characteristics, brightness, color, frequency, coherence, modulation, speed of light
- Light in the Universe: appearance of light after big bang, sources of light, ...
- Light in everyday life: How different light effect humans (depression), everyday sources, human eye
- Light in industry: sources, conversion from/to electricity; some applications of light (laser, ...); application of optics
- Light in science: spectroscopy, astronomy, interferometry (If tht were important, than it should be in those sections)
Light in theory: introduce quantum electrodynamics, explain how the current theory explains light and its applications
History
- Older theories of light
- History of measurement of the speed of light

Temperature

Restructure according to the guidelines proposed in Wikipedia:WikiProject Science, ie. with the following main sections:

Introduction : importance of temperature for life and humans; brief history of the understanding of temperature
Temperature in practice: (avoid theory here)
- Types of temperature: perceived vs real, typical values, macroscopic vs microscopic, temperature of light, negative temperature
- Units of measure
- Temperature in the Universe: temperature changes since the big bang
- Temperature in everyday life: common measuring devices; importance for life
- Temperature in industry: importance in chemical processes; sample processes with very low or high temperature
- Temperature in science: precise measuring devices; role in many scientific theories
Temperature theory: discuss thermodynamics, why temperature cannot go below 0...
- Basic concepts
  - why temperature cannot go below zero under a basic definition
- Advanced concepts
  - why temperature can go below zero under a more rigorous definition
History: explain how the concept of temperature evolved over time

Geology

use the structure proposed by the Wikipedia:WikiProject Science, i.e.:
- write a section on applications (estimate risks of eruptions and seisms, search minerals, ...)
  - Y Section started. Still needs work, though.
- describe the main geological theories (plate tectonics, mineral formation, ...)
  - Y Plate tectonics, some others
  - Mineral formation, petrology/thermodynamics
  - YRocks, Yrock cycle
  - Landscape formation: erosion, transport, deposition of seds
add references to the article
- Many more added, but can always have more. 06:15, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

need to talk about Alfred Wegner and his major contribution to geology.

add arrow from igneous back to magma labelled melting

Information theory

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Wikify : 21:06, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

Accuracy of articles

We follow the rules proposed in Wikipedia:Accuracy dispute and Wikipedia:Disputed statement to improve the accuracy of scientific articles.

To help improve accuracy, please regularly check the

Other Open Tasks

Requested scientific articles: survey existing science coverage in the encyclopedia and see if there are any areas that are neglected. Create any requested article.
Scientific pages needing attention: add any page that contains inaccuracies, and / or fix the identified ones.
Peer review : watch for scientific articles and contribute

Enter other proposed tasks here.

Guest book

Please sign-in ! This will encourage others to do so too...

Pcarbonn 20:45, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Ian Cairns 22:07, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Beland 04:51, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
ww 16:54, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC) I'm certainly sympathic with this project, though taken aback by the scope. I will attempt to assist, time and previous commitments permitting.
Sayeth 16:58, Aug 4, 2004 (UTC) I've been working on biographies of neuroscientists who have won the Nobel Prize and related neuroscience articles
Dr. Strangelove 13:54, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC) Nice project. I certainly will try to contribute. Unfortunately, I lack the time for great projects at the moment, but I will focus on smaller, more specific articles from the fields of biochemistry and chemistry.