This is an investigation about the scope of the ideas, images and concepts associated to the word "nature": how do scientists - men and women that not just make science but also train other scientists - conceive of nature? A comparative exercise was carried out with a group of non-academic subjects. Statements related to the phrase "nature" were investigated in two groups: the first was a group of teachers-researchers from a Biochemistry Department, and the second was composed of bus drivers and collectors. Using the methodology of "collective subject discourse analysis", the discourses about "nature" were identified, allowing the comparison between them. Use was made of the concept of social representation. It was shown that the differences in scientific formation between the groups were manifested in the technically laden examples given by the biochemists. Nevertheless, the categories giving support to the ideas about "nature" turned out to be similar across the groups. It was possible to notice that the biochemists, despite making use of "nature" as a referent for the scientific work, ended up admitting, by and large, their inability to give a precise meaning to the term. The results reveal the existence of a gap in higher scientific education: the lack of an epistemological formation. This conclusion, of an educational character, is complemented by notes on the relation between scientific formation, philosophy of science and the social impact of scientific activity.
Social representation of nature; Biochemists; Bus drivers; Scientific formation
