Our understanding of the universe.

The first letter of STEM, Science, is how we understand and explain the wonderful and interesting world around us through testable theories and hypotheses.

Usually when people hear "science", they think of the material sciences, such as astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science. Science can cover social sciences, like philosophy, applied science, like medicine and engineering, or formal science, like mathematics.

On this page, we'll be looking at the natural sciences, such as the physical and life sciences, and cover formal and applied sciences later. This page is a basic overview of basic scientific disciplines.

Physical Sciences

Physical science – branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together called the "physical sciences". However, the term "physical" creates an unintended, somewhat arbitrary distinction, since many branches of physical science also study biological phenomena and other branches of chemistry such as organic chemistry.

Physics

Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines, perhaps the oldest through its inclusion of astronomy.[9] Over the last two millennia, physics was a part of natural philosophy along with chemistry, biology, and certain branches of mathematics, but during the scientific revolution in the 17th century, the natural sciences emerged as unique research programs in their own right.[b] Physics intersects with many interdisciplinary areas of research, such as biophysics and quantum chemistry, and the boundaries of physics are not rigidly defined. New ideas in physics often explain the fundamental mechanisms of other sciences[6] while opening new avenues of research in areas such as mathematics and philosophy.
Chemistry

Chemistry is a branch of physical science that studies the composition, structure, properties and change of matter.[1][2] Chemistry includes topics such as the properties of individual atoms, how atoms form chemical bonds to create chemical compounds, the interactions of substances through intermolecular forces that give matter its general properties, and the interactions between substances through chemical reactions to form different substances. Chemistry is sometimes called the central science because it bridges other natural sciences, including physics, geology and biology. For the differences between chemistry and physics see comparison of chemistry and physics.
Earth Science

Earth science or geoscience is an all-encompassing term that refers to the fields of science dealing with planet Earth. It can be considered to be a branch of planetary science, but with a much older history. There are both reductionist and holistic approaches to Earth sciences. The formal discipline of Earth sciences may include the study of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. Typically, Earth scientists will use tools from physics, chemistry, biology, chronology, and mathematics to build a quantitative understanding of how the Earth system works, and how it evolved to its current state.
Space Science

Space science encompasses all of the scientific disciplines involved in space exploration and studying phenomena occurring in outer space, such as space medicine and astrobiology.
Space science includes astronomy, space exporation, and astronomics.

Life Sciences

The life sciences comprise the fields of science that involve the scientific study of living organisms – such as microorganisms, plants, animals, and human beings – as well as related considerations like bioethics. While biology remains the centerpiece of the life sciences, technological advances in molecular biology and biotechnology have led to a burgeoning of specializations and interdisciplinary fields.

Sub-disciplines of biology are defined by the scale at which organisms are studied, the kinds of organisms studied, and the methods used to study them: biochemistry examines the rudimentary chemistry of life; molecular biology studies the complex interactions among biological molecules; botany studies the biology of plants; cellular biology examines the basic building-block of all life, the cell; physiology examines the physical and chemical functions of tissues, organs, and organ systems of an organism; evolutionary biology examines the processes that produced the diversity of life; and ecology examines how organisms interact in their environment.

Molecular Biology

Molecular biology concerns the molecular basis of biological activity between biomolecules in the various systems of a cell, including the interactions between DNA, RNA and proteins and their biosynthesis, as well as the regulation of these interactions.
Cell Biology

Cell biology (formerly called cytology, from the Greek κυτος, kytos, "vessel") and otherwise known as molecular or cell biology, is a branch of biology that studies the different structures and functions of the cell and focuses mainly on the idea of the cell as the basic unit of life. Cell biology explains the structure, organization of the organelles they contain, their physiological properties, metabolic processes, signaling pathways, life cycle, and interactions with their environment. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level as it encompasses prokaryotic cells and eukaryotic cells. Knowing the components of cells and how cells work is fundamental to all biological sciences it is also essential for research in bio-medical fields such as cancer, and other diseases. Research in cell biology is closely related to genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology, and developmental biology.
Anatomy and Physiology

Anatomy is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is inherently tied to embryology, comparative anatomy, evolutionary biology, and phylogeny,as these are the processes by which anatomy is generated over immediate (embryology) and long (evolution) timescales. A sub-discipline of biology, its focus is in how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system.
Ecology

Ecology is the scientific analysis and study of interactions among organisms and their environment. It is an interdisciplinary field that includes biology, geography, and Earth science. Ecology includes the study of interactions organisms have with each other, other organisms, and with abiotic components of their environment. Topics of interest to ecologists include the diversity, distribution, amount (biomass), and number (population) of particular organisms, as well as cooperation and competition between organisms, both within and among ecosystems.

Our understanding of the universe.

Physical Sciences

Life Sciences

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