Fire. Magic. This is how science have started.
Since the beginning of human civilization, science and technology has progressed in a continuous process. Fire must have been an exciting new technology for the first humans and to this day we are continuing research to fully answer the question, what is fire? But the search for new knowledge is based on rational thinking, which is fundamental for progress and for making new discoveries. Science is an education process that allows the educated and creative minds to question, experiment or observe in an attempt to find answers, and then try to identify a set of unifying principles, concepts, and laws that embraces all phenomena of nature.
Science has literally evolved not only in forms and theories proved, but most importantly in the mind of every scientist that finds interest in the phenomenas engaged in the universe. From a simple way to provide warmth, cook raw foods, and other means fire was used, it has been widely used to provide and generate chemical reactions to two or more substances being heat up. From then on, fire became an all important factor and concept in the progress of science as a subject and as a discipline. But where is science taking us, the humanity and the society we are living in? What more exciting things can science offer us, both the learners and educators and ultimately, mankind.
The sharp division of science into pure and applied branches is not natural. Some
managers of science believe in this division and wish to emphasize only “what is relevant” for the prosperity of the society. But that is not the way science works, as scientists themselves in their quest for new knowledge do not know what is relevant. And if they knew ahead of time it would not be new knowledge. Scientific research is not manageable in the usual sense of the word.
Ahmed Zewail, a Nobel Laureate of the California Institute of Technology, in one of his lecture series pointed out the 21st Edition that Science can offer us:
WHAT IS IN STORE FOR SCIENCE. Future Frontiers.
1. On Our Matter – Just think about these new scales of time and space in the world of the very small. If your heart beats once a second, now we can see the beats of atoms in a femtosecond, in a millionth of a billionth of a second – a femtosecond is to a minute as a minute is to the age of the universe. As the smallest particles in the universe, the ability to magnify matter implies not only a full turn and advancement for science, rather, a full twist and turn that signifies how science will continue to affect us in the decades to come. With the emergence of new and fresh blood scientists, matter will forever remain as the “cell” of science discoveries.
2. Our universe – the scale of the very big. In this century, we may have colonies on the moon, and we may have our second homes on other planets and maybe even in other solar systems. Just think of the scales of the world of the very big. Our universe is about 12 billion years old, and at the speed of light (300,000 krnls), our universe’s limit of distance is 100 billion trillion kilometers – certainly enough space for the six billion people on earth today, even multiplying by ten or by one million for the future! The opportunities involving outer space and information technology are unlimited. On our planet, through ‘virtual walls’, which in principle will provide any information one needs, education and intelligence in all societies will be redefined.
3. Our life – the scale in between. In the first year of this century, the sequencing of
the human genome was completed. We now have the genetic map that describes every human on planet Earth. Just think, three billion letters have been deciphered and read into our book of life. The history of biology has changed from the classification of living organisms (Darwin’s theory), to the world of cells (Leeuwenhoek-Hooke Microscope), to now the molecular world (Watson and Crick’s DNA) with revolutionary
ideas in genetic engineering.
Science in the 21st century is becoming and have become a diverse discipline. With the advent of technology and the abundance of information, no wonder, science is going no where than future discoveries and improvement. However the mix of science and business by scientists is a concern that in this century may, in my opinion, have a detrimental impact on the culture of science and commitment to scholarship. Science educators and the academe should remain the place for free exchange, motivated primarily by the search for new knowledge and education of students.
Let me end on a hopeful note. If humanity’s quest is progress and prosperity, we will need to weave the rational scientific approach, which is basic to our definition as Homo sapiens into the fabric of our civilizations.
Science promised us of a life full of surprises, magic, and fire if only we can learn the vast fields by where science is abundant. By becoming the scientists in our own lives and improvement of knowledge and information, surely, science and technology will then become the real spaceship for the successful voyage of posterity.
By: Anna Liza De Leon-Salas | Master Teacher I | Limay National High School
