Spatial Thinking In Science

Spatial Thinking In Science

Spatial Thinking In Science

The effectiveness of nonverbal processes of mental imagery and spatial visualization can be explained, at least in part, by reference to the following interrelated aspects of such processes: their private and therefore not socially, conventionally, or institutionally controlled nature; their richly concrete and isomorphic structure; their engagement of highly developed, innate mechanisms of spatial intuition; and their direct emotional impact. Spatial thinking is deeply implicated in the conduct of science. This is not to argue that science can only be done by means of spatial thinking.

It is to argue that many classic discoveries and everyday procedures of science draw extensively on the processes of spatial thinking. The Executive Summary describes the role of spatial thinking in one of the great discoveries in modem science, Crick and Watson's double-helix model of the structure of DNA in biochemistry. Chapter I illustrates the role of spatial thinking in epidemiology. Here, the committee focuses on spatial thinking in astronomy, geoscience, and geography. These sciences have many things in common. They are Earth centric. They are empirical sciences that are predominantly nonexperimental in character, relying on interpretation of hard-won observations of existing situations. In recent decades, each has experienced floods of data from newly developed observational technologies: sensors (such as seismographs and high-resolution hydrophones), sampling devices (such as deep sea and ice core drilling technologies), satellites (including multispectral imagery and global positioning systems [GPSJ), and platforms (such as the Hubble telescope and the All-in submersible).

Astronomy, geoscience, and geography have gone from being data impoverished to data enriched, if not data overwhelmed, placing a premium on the ability to manage and interpret data. At the same time, each has developed procedures to deal with data problems: generalization to cope with overspecificity and detail; extrapolation and interpolation to deal with missing data; correction procedures to deal with error and uncertainty. Because of the inherently spatial nature of their concerns, they have been at the forefront of developing and practicing spatial thinking through the use of root metaphors (e.g., maps), analytic techniques (e.g., trend surface analysis), and represen tational systems (e.g., spectral diagrams). They show similar sensitivities to the effects of spatial scale and the need for multiscalar analyses, to interrelationships between space and time, to the importance of spatial context, and to the needs for visualization and spatialization. Four case studies are presented here.

The first, from astronomy, is a long-term, historical account of the development of one approach to spatial thinking, astrophysical spatialization, within a discipline. The second, from geoscience, contrasts spatial thinking from two perspectives, that of an expert practicing the craft and that of a novice learning the craft. The third and fourth case studies focus on two scientists whose work exemplifies the power of spatial thinking. The third describes the work of Marie Tharp, a marine geologist, who created a pioneering series of seafloor maps. The last case study analyzes the work of Walter Christaller, a geographer who developed central place theory. The focus in each case study is the way in which spatial thinking is integral to the work of scientists and therefore to scientific discovery and progress. Learning things is not limited to the scentific area. Instead it also has relations with some other things like speaking a language or using software, including Rosetta Stone Russian and Rosetta Stone Spanish. If you have a creative mind, you will make all your own differences in the end!

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