July 18, 2012

Science. Oh, science. What pops in your head when you hear that word? An old man in a lab coat? What about your more than odd high school biology teacher? Or a set of bubbling chemicals of all colors in a chemical lab? Or maybe you just think of the word "hate!" Yeah, science isn't for everyone. But really, what is science?

I would copy and paste the definition according to some smart people who write the dictionary, but it isn't worth the number of words versus the number of readers who will actually appreciate it. Generally speaking, science is the study of things natural and physical through experimentation and/or observation. It kind of sounds boring from that dry and dull description, though. I promise, it's pretty cool. 

You know, I always heard that the creative minds weren't cut out for the science realm, but I've begun to see how that's a completely wrong statement. Creativity is something that's encouraged when researching new phenomena in the world. 

I've been reading this old book about scientific investigations, so I'm in this weird state looking at science like I've never seen before. We see scientists as always knowing what they're doing, making knowledge available to the masses, and becoming the "pioneers" of the world in a sense. And they most certainly are. Don't get me wrong. Scientists of any kind, in the world of biology, physics, astronomy, chemistry, geology, etc., are well-educated and some of the smartest people out there. But, at least for what I've encountered as a young student so far in experimental science, there seems to be less structure than what I expected. Less structure of "this is black" and "this is white." Like, in research we can't rule out anything. Does that make sense?

I remember all throughout my whole academic life sitting through science lecture after science lecture. The teacher starts a new chapter. Great, that always means more memorization of formulas. Behind all those formulas, though, there had to have been so many hours of people pulling their hair out until...eureka! (Hope you enjoy the chemistry cat joke! I laughed so much at this, believe it or not. If you like it, google search more! They're hilarious!)

A lot of people might not realize how much we really don't know about the world we live in. It's kind of scary once you think about it. Are there aliens? What's down in the depths of the sea beyond the reaches of light? How long can we extend a human's life? Can we actually make a teleportation device? An infinite number of questions, but not too many answers.

Doesn't it make you want to figure it all out? Well, maybe not for some of you. But it's exciting to think about! We won't get all the answers. Ever. We as humans will never be the ultimate all-knowing gods of planet Earth. This crazy world is so complicated that after multitudes of years, its inhabitants still can't figure out it all. Well, that's just my opinion of it all.  

I hope this doesn't make you feel all sad inside. Or stupid. But don't feel that way! If you think about it, we're all stupid together! Yay!