Sometimes I am. Afraid that is--science is paradoxical at times. There is a side to science is that finite and exact. There are a multitude of scientific facts to ponder, remember, and apply--and yet at the same time science is also infinite and unknown.
Science begins with a question. Whether it is looking at the night time sky, a landslide, the way tiny beads of water cling to the car window in the morning, science asks why? what if?...and then when you find the answer, the answer might be the right answer for that day or that year or even that moment-because science changes.
Not only does our understanding of the world change, just look at what happened to Pluto! To add to that, sometimes even the brightest scientific minds don't agree. So now science is also a debate.
So where did I go wrong? Why did I grow up believing that science was predictable, something you held in your hand, something that was to be counted on? Why did I grow up thinking that scientists were people who knew all of the answers about why things were the way they were?
Given a choice, I much prefer the beauty of the unknown, the process of investigation, the moment when light replaces darkness in my mind, the inevitable what ifs that follow.
Science is like a mystery. If I let myself be a detective and not a judge, then I'm less afraid of saying, I don't know.
Science begins with a question. Whether it is looking at the night time sky, a landslide, the way tiny beads of water cling to the car window in the morning, science asks why? what if?...and then when you find the answer, the answer might be the right answer for that day or that year or even that moment-because science changes.
Not only does our understanding of the world change, just look at what happened to Pluto! To add to that, sometimes even the brightest scientific minds don't agree. So now science is also a debate.
So where did I go wrong? Why did I grow up believing that science was predictable, something you held in your hand, something that was to be counted on? Why did I grow up thinking that scientists were people who knew all of the answers about why things were the way they were?
Given a choice, I much prefer the beauty of the unknown, the process of investigation, the moment when light replaces darkness in my mind, the inevitable what ifs that follow.
Science is like a mystery. If I let myself be a detective and not a judge, then I'm less afraid of saying, I don't know.