Science? Why should I bother?

It’s unusual for a science publication to take this sort of tone
– but let’s have a chat.

After all this is an editorial. Maybe, it’s even breaking the rules - but it’s ok - we can do it. We’ll stray a bit from the expected: analysis, objectivity, statistics, references – that sort of thing.

Great, but let’s face it - if you’re reading this, you’re probably not the intended audience of this piece. In fact, the people who this article is aimed at wouldn’t be visiting FirstScience.com at all, they would be occupied elsewhere – perhaps at work, the care of others, maintaining living space, doing their tax return or engaging in entertainment – and I would be the last to argue that the items on this list and many others too lengthy to mention here are not all good things.

So what’s the point? Surely amidst of all of the demands of managing the necessary elements in life and the small time that we have remaining to ourselves for enjoyment, there could be no suggestion that yet another item be piled on the heap? The answer: is a surprising ‘yes’. Absolutely.

More so than at any point in the past, we live in an extremely dynamic and changing age. The cause of this rapid change is our collective ability to understand and manipulate our environment: and this is brought about through advances in science. Of course, the ability to use knowledge to help us in our lives has been with us for more than a little while. A few years ago, a friend gave me a pre-historic stone hand tool. While it’s edges had dulled, the amazing thing about this rock was how perfectly it fit my hand – there it was, a human-designed high-tech object from 30,000 years ago. The ability to make this tool, some researchers believe, was passed down through generations - by example, without language. Of course, the vast majority of us now wouldn’t be able to duplicate this achievement– we don’t need to: our kitchen drawers are filled with pre-made utensils, homes are made for us and food conveniently arrives in supermarkets.