I would guess that when non-scientists think about scientists, they think that scientists love to explain the world (which we do) in order to take the wonder out of the world. And I say that it is just the opposite. Every day I am amazed at the beauty and wonder of science.
When I think, really think about everything, it is like unbelievably fantastic. Let's start with the basics: everything we do, all of our thoughts, actions are chemical reactions. Simple shifting of electrons. This phosphate group moves from here to there, and we are happy or sad or asleep. This kind of blows my mind.
Think about yourself. You started as one cell. One single cell. You brush your teeth, you spit out hundred of cells, and, yet, you started as one. How does one little cell make all of this?! Doesn't that kind of amaze you? The bones, the eyes, that brain, at one point, all one single cell. Let's take it even further: it's all because of that DNA you've got. "I wouldn't want to write a novel with 4 letters -- I think I'll write a human being instead." How does a series of 4 letters do all of this? How is that not magical?
Even evolution, isn't it actually more of a wonder thinking about the idea of 4 billion years to get to this point? That slowly, slowly, we went from ooze that organized itself to this. Now, think further, we carry that DNA from all those generations ago. Oh, is that too much? Just think about your great-grandparents. You have the DNA. You literally have bits of all of them in every single one of your cells.
I'm sure there are scientists who look at the world through cold, calculating eyes, but I am awed.
1 comment:
"Every day I am amazed at the beauty and wonder of science," she writes.
I've never thought of a scientist as one who tries to take the wonder out of the world. Instead, I see the scientist as the ultimate explorer, an adventurer -- someone who discovers.
I guess I'm just amazed that we have a world filled with (mostly good) people, in all kinds of occupations, and every one of us can be awed by the same things, though perhaps in slight different ways.
"The beauty and wonder of science" is also the beauty and wonder of the everything around us, even what we don't see or understand.
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This is one of those great postings that should give anyone pause to think, to look with eyes wide open, to appreciate -- to believe in the impossible, or at least, the improbable.
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