Back to the basics

BACK TO THE BASICS
{How can we know where we are going if we have no clue where we are coming from}

Science ummmm lets see… what is it, or even better, how is it what it is. Well to know these things you need to start from the beginning and work backwards. Our lives are filled with uncertainty; in fact uncertainty is the one thing we can be sure about. Nobody knows everything and if they claim to, well their probably lying through their teeth. We are filled with doubts and questions every moment of the day: how does this work, what happens if I do this, maybe this isn’t such a good thing to do, which product should I choose…. In fact humanity has been plagued by this doubt/ uncertainty / questioning / curiosity, simply because we do NOT know everything there is to know. Simple economics the supply of ignorance is massive; the demand for knowledge is even greater; of course an industry would come up to take advantage of this. Maybe we could classify this as science… creating AND refining a body of knowledge to satisfy our curiosity. No wait a minute this could well include, religion, superstition, art, literature and many other human endeavors which claim to have many answers and vast pools of knowledge with which we can occupy our minds. But surely science is different from these other fields; surely something separates Einstein from Bejan Daruwala.

Yes in fact there is something that connects all of science, a very basic philosophical statement. Its very simple actually: WE DON’T KNOW, umm what exactly do we no know; NOTHING. WE DON’T KNOW ANYTHING. We must question everything around us. Science tries very hard not to assume anything. All our knowledge in science is based on cold, hard facts … experiments, data, patterns, laws, and calculations – seeing is believing. Scientists know very well that they are up against massive odds. They attempt to construct infinitely complex laws of the universe using earthly materials, and human brains. They attempt to calculate and give values to astronomical phenomenon that have been raging on for billions of years, they attempt to delve deep into the world of quantum physics where in fact seeing is not believing {in fact in this quantum world, seeing means interfering with what your observing}. Most amazingly they even try to decode themselves, their own genes and muscles and tissue, their own brains.. Seems amazing isn’t it. As far as we know the human brain is the only piece of matter in the universe, which is trying to figure out what makes itself tick. All the while they must look for patterns, they must search for rules that connect, they must look at systems which work together, they must dissect everything they see in front of them {no matter how mundane} to find out what EXACTLY is going on, even if it looks simple enough. All along they must make sure they are not getting stuck in ruts, not limiting themselves or misleading themselves by following old, disastrously ignorant theories. A scientist could work all his life on a certain theory only to find that he was on the completely wrong track and had merely been skimming the surface {or in fact be on the wrong water body altogether). If X and Y are increasing together, a scientist could say that X is causing Y to increase, he could also say that Y is causing X to increase, but wait a minute … suppose Z is causing both X AND Y to increase. This is but a tiny problem scientists must face.

But there is still hope. Maybe science is not an impossible task. Just take a look at human progress so far. Pretty impressive eh. We’ve reached the moon for god sake, we’ve left the cradle from where we spawned, and we control our own environments. None of this would have been possible without science and the DISCIPLINE that goes along with it , discipline in thought and in action .

So what does a scientist do, to aid this vast body of seemingly accurate information we have created to benefit mankind.

Well first he must THINK. He has to hypothesize come up with a valid question, which could produce wonderful new answers. He could do this by observing the world around him or he could pull it out from deep inside his own mind, from within his creativity {sounds weird but come on dudes like Einstein did it}. After he has his “question’ he has to go about solving it, this is usually done by creating experiments {within one’s own mind or actually physical experiments}. Again he must observe. And finally the hardest part, he must connect and draw conclusions by trying to create reasons or mechanisms acting behind what he saw. Most of the time he’s plain wrong but as time goes on more thought {usually from a different scientist}, more experiments and more concluding does lead to a better answer. Remember it is merely a BETTER answer because there is no such thing as a PERFECT ANSWER. The moment you find one, its INCOMPLETE. There is always a deeper level, more meaning and the only way to understand is to keep digging.

Soooo. Where does that leave us? In a better position than before I would say. Ignorance is definitely not bliss. Knowing things and more importantly why they happen is vital. Take global warming for example, a massive problem facing the world today. In order to do something about it we have to be sure about what exactly is happening. People can’t go around throwing words like “green house gases” and “carbon credits”. We need to figure out the cause-consequence system and what to do to reverse the damage we have caused. More importantly we must try to predict how to prevent a situation like this ever arising again. Now if the inventor of the automobile had just stood aside to think for a minute about the consequences of his actions, maybe we wouldn’t be here in the first place. This brings us to another issue. Which is the responsibility that scientists have towards society and humanity as a whole, ethics and morals, rules and regulations. For example the atomic bomb; a marvel of science, a peacekeeping device, but in the end it is still a weapon of mass destruction. Scientists wield a great deal of power. They are blessed with knowledge. NO, not the kind of knowledge you find in textbooks or wikipedia but knowing the skills of QUESTIONING, REASONING and RATIONALISING without bias.

To be a scientist you must first learn to think.. to think without bounds , without limitations --- no walls {not even roofs} .. to be OPEN MINDED. But at the same time you require discipline in your thought, to observe and connect ideas, discipline in your actions to create situations {experiments} within which these patterns can be more clearly seen. And of course passion and a truckload of hard work would also help.

Learning to THINK, deeper than we are normally satisfied, to question more than is necessary, and to see/understand for ourselves with our own eyes/minds is SCIENCE.



NOTE: if I refer to scientist X as a “he” I am merely referring to scientists in general {I tend to use “he” cause I am a boy}. I strongly believe that women are equal if not better than men in the field of science. Just clarifying. Further more I believe this article was supposed to be written on one aspect of science, which fascinates me. But in fact all of science fascinates me, and it seem like a great injustice not to first address what science is as a whole.

By: Nishant Jacob Jonathan Mathew
Std: 10 C
Purpose: Application for the Sakhamuri Science Award