jeudi 24 janvier 2013

We shall not confuse young people !

If we have the possibility, shouldn't we be fair and honest ? Shouldn't we say the truth to young people who decide for their lives on what we tell them ?

Today, I received an email containing this :

I am a culinary student in Pittsburgh, PA USA. I stopped attending my pastry program to study science and mathematics at a 4 year institution to learn why is baking called a science. 

 My answer was obvious : 

I don't understand what you write, when you say "I stopped attending a pastry program to study science in an institution to lear why is baking called a science".
Indeed the word "science" is ambiguous, because exact sciences are not the same as other "knowledges".
Yes, one can speak of the "science of the pastry chef", of the "science of shoe maker", but this knowledge has nothing to do with the science done by chemists, physicists and biologists, for example (including molecular gastronomy in this group... as it should not be confused with "molecular cuisine").
For "nature sciences", or "natural philosophy" as it was called, the job is to use the "scientific method" in order to discover the mechanisms of phenomena.
The scientific method ?
1. observe a phenomenon
2. make quantitative measurements of it
3. link all data in synthetic laws
4. look for mechanisms explaining such laws ; the group of found mechanisms will make a model, or a theory
5. look for consequences  (predictions) of your theory
6. make an experiment in order to refute the theory, and go back to 2 and subs for ever.

You seek, making a bread or a cake has nothing to do with this ! 

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