Scientific explanations are always subject to change in the face of new evidence. Ideas with the most durable explanatory power become established theories or are codified as laws of nature. Overall, the key criterion of science is that it is a clear, rational, and succinct account of a pattern in nature. Virtually all objects released near the surface of the earth sooner or later fall to the ground. Green is the predominant color of most plants.
Some objects float while others sink.
Fire yields heat. Weather in North America generally moves from west to east. Many organisms that once inhabited the earth no longer do so. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to examine the scientific accounts of these patterns. Some are well known, such as that the rotation of the earth on its axis gives rise to the apparent travel of the sun across the sky, or that fire is combustion, a transfer of energy from one form to another.