Scientists investigate natural phenomena with skills drawn from many disciplines of science, math, and technology. They develop logical explanations based on observation and experimentation. One of the essential components of higher order thinking is the ability to think about a whole in terms of its parts and, alternatively, about parts in terms of how they relate to one another and the whole. Understanding systems is fundamental to being able to rationally apply scientific knowledge. Scientists assume that the universe is a vast single system in which the basic rules are the same everywhere.
Scientists operate on the belief that the rules can be discovered by careful, systematic study.
Scientific knowledge is subject to modification as new information challenges prevailing theories and as a new theory leads to looking at old observations in a new way. Testing, revising, and occasional discarding of theories, new and old, never end. This on-going process leads to an increasingly better understanding of how things work in the world. Scientific disciplines have been created by humans for organization of information. Many problems are studied by scientists using information and skills from many of these disciplines.