The nature of science, debunked
By: Annie Sragner, Associate Arts and Life Editor
Whenever I tell people that I’m a biology major, I always expect the cringes and condolences that usually follow. I find this perplexing because I don’t understand why people shy away from science. Sure, it can be difficult at times, but this is college and it is supposed to be challenging.
Many think that science doesn’t apply to everyday life, but it has answers for how everything works. Think about your body right now. Your eyes act as the windows to the world and they relay electrical messages to the rest of your body to keep it safe and informed about what’s going on outside. There are seven organ systems in our bodies, and they work in perfect harmony in every moment to keep us alive.
The vast quantity of information in science can be intimidating, but I find that what’s yet to be discovered is far more intimidating. Science is essentially the quest to know the unknown. How does life work? Why are we here now? Why is our existence so minute compared to the endless nature of the universe? Science is constantly working on figuring these questions out.
In the spirit of the scientific method, it is important to note that there are no true “facts” in science, there are only theories that prove themselves throughout time. There is no “always” or “never” in science, there are only concepts that have worked in every trial we have tried so far.
Science, like life, can be gross – grossly demanding, grossly complicated or just plain gross. But if you distance yourself from all of the grossness in life, you also distance yourself from the realness of life.
One of my favorite sayings is that “Art is the expression of what is, science is how it is and philosophy is why it is.” Artists express the life they experience in a way that others can relate to and appreciate. Philosophers take the experience of life and decipher why it occurs.
Science assembles all of that life experience and quantifies data from it to provide explanations as to how it all works together. Regardless of your background or beliefs, science applies to everyone. It is vast, and that vastness is a terrifying concept. Humans are miniscule in the grand scheme of things, but we have to understand as much as we can about all of this. Life perpetuates life, and mankind needs to know how.
