Science in daily life.

**brain21** · 06-01-2008, 10:53 PM

I'm not talking about using iPod's, MRIs, computers, or gravity, when I say science.

I just read an article on the NY times webpage on seeing life though science's eyes. Scary thing is, I could relate to it.

It's pretty awesome stuff, have a read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/op...in&oref=slogin

**sc1ence** · 06-02-2008, 12:31 PM

From the article

Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that’s precise, predictive and reliable — a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional. To be able to think through and grasp explanations — for everything from why the sky is blue to how life formed on earth — not because they are declared dogma but rather because they reveal patterns confirmed by experiment and observation, is one of the most precious of human experiences.

Good read.

**Atomic Dog** · 06-02-2008, 12:36 PM

Science as a religious experience...neat!

**draeh** · 06-02-2008, 03:51 PM

You mean this thread isn't about sc1ence's daily life?

Now I'm bummed.

**Axis of Eeevil** · 06-02-2008, 10:28 PM

I really liked this quote from The Diversity of Life, by Pulitzer prize-winning biologist E.O. Wilson:

"There comes a time, in all science, when it is profitable to move away from the bold and obvious and circle around a bit, inventing more subtle approaches to search for concealed phenomena."

Too often, the run-of-the-mill scientist goes out looking for a certain thing, to the exclusion of other, more subtle observations that might be made along the way. However, most of the greatest scientists allowed themselves to be guided to their greatest discoveries just by their fascination with exploring and discovering.

There is too little gut-level intuition and freedom of curiosity in the academic world; the pressure to publish, get funding, obtain tenure and add more to a dominant body of research has squashed the freedom and delight with which the naturalists, inventors and discoverers of old went about exploring the world.
Of course there are exceptions in every field--the Kraffts in vulcanology, Eugenie Clark and Jacques Cousteau in marine biology, Agassiz, Hawking, Goodall...but the freedom to explore is severely hampered by the current academic system, more than it has been before, I think.

**Atomic Dog** · 06-02-2008, 10:39 PM

It seems like that mentality is mostly steered by the pressure to specialize and, as a result, emphasize a particular specialization as the answer to all problems. To a man with a hammer, all problems are perceived as a nail.