science vs sciences

[Stakie]

Although earth or life science is singular and earth or life sciences is plural, can both be used interchangeable as an adjective?
For instance, "life science education" is similar and equally correct as "life sciences education" or not, please?

 

[Tarheel]

Offhand I would say it doesn't matter whether you use the singular or plural as an adjective. However, those who teach that subject might be pickier than that.

 

[jutfrank]

I say they're both wrong.

Give us a complete sentence, so we know what you're trying to say.

 

[emsr2d2]

Although "earth/life science" is singular and "earth/life sciences" is plural, can both they be used interchangeably as an adjective?
For instance, is "life science education" is similar to and as equally correct as "life sciences education"? or not, please?

 

[Stakie]

example sentence as requested: “Life science technologies are booming”

 

[SoothingDave]

I read a footnote in a textbook on Materials Science that stated that Oxford University (home of the dictionary) has a "Department of Materials" rather than a Materials Science Department because "materials" is not an adjective.

 

[White Hat]

I read a footnote in a textbook on Materials Science that stated that Oxford University (home of the dictionary) has a "Department of Materials" rather than a Materials Science Department because "materials" is not an adjective.

I don't want to start another thread - could you just tell me why it is '(home of the dictionary)' and not '(the home of the dictionary)'? Is it OK to omit 'the' in the parenthesis? I need to know this, as I deal with similar constructions quite often in my work.

 

[White Hat]

As regards the OP's query, this page here, which is part of the official website of the University of Calgary, says the following: 'Meet graduates of the Life Sciences Fellowship. Explore new life science technologies including plant protein, virtual reality teaching methods, medical surgical devices and games that promote child health'.
Here's another example from the Internet: 'She has a keen interest in emerging life science technologies, like gene editing and synthetic biology, as well as their intersection with artificial intelligence, deep learning and robotics, and the implications of these developments for arms control and non-proliferation.'. The sentence is from a page on the website of King's College London.
Lastly, this paper by native speakers of English is entitled 'Augmented Reality for Enhancing Life Science Education'.

 

[SoothingDave]

I don't want to start another thead - could you just tell me why it is '(home of the dictionary)' and not '(the home of the dictionary)'? Is it OK to omit 'the' in the parenthesis? I need to know this, as I deal with similar constructions quite often in my work.

You could include the "the," but it's not necessary.

As for your other question, I would also use the singular when using "life science" as an adjective.

 

[jutfrank]

The plural noun 'life sciences' refers to members of a certain group of scientific fields. So genetics for example can be classed as 'a life science' (singular countable noun), as can bacteriology and immunology, etc. It's also possible to refer to this group itself generally as 'life science' (singular uncountable noun).

When we modify nouns with other nouns, we typically use the singular form of the noun.