Short answers, pulled from the story.
Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge as testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. It is commonly divided into three major branches: natural science, social science, and formal science, with applied sciences such as engineering and medicine using scientific knowledge for practical goals.
The earliest identifiable predecessors to modern science date to the Bronze Age civilisations of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, roughly 3000 to 1200 BCE. These cultures produced the earliest written records in the history of science, contributing to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine.
William Whewell introduced the term scientist in 1834, in a review of Mary Somerville's book On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences. He credited it to some ingenious gentleman, possibly himself. Before this, a researcher was called a natural philosopher or a man of science.
The three major branches of science are natural science, social science, and formal science. Natural science studies the physical world, social science studies human behaviour and societies, and formal science generates knowledge using formal systems such as mathematics and theoretical computer science.
The scientific method seeks to explain nature objectively in a reproducible way, using hypotheses that make falsifiable predictions tested by experimentation. Karl Popper proposed replacing verifiability with falsifiability as the landmark of scientific theories, and disproof of a prediction is treated as evidence of progress.
Psychologists point to several drivers, including viewing scientific authorities as inexpert or biased, holding beliefs that contradict scientific messages, and fear of rejection within social groups. Climate change is perceived as a threat by 22% of Americans on the political right but by 85% on the left.
The Scientific Revolution began in the 16th century as new ideas departed from previous Greek conceptions. Tycho Brahe's accurate observations and Galileo Galilei's telescopic observations turned astronomy into the first modern science, and Johannes Kepler used Brahe's data to discover that planets move in elliptical orbits.