Basic science: a key to solutions and growth — Part I
Basic science is a strategic point for countries.
A few days ago, I bumped into an acquaintance on the street. Talking about the current situation in our country, he told me that science was unimportant. He said: “There is no point in investing in science unless it is useful”. This situation made me think about the meaning and importance of science.
What do you think when you hear the word science? The answer to this question is personal, with as many interpretations as there are individuals on the planet. However, no one can deny that science gives us the possibility to comprehend. Along this line of thinking, understanding the basis will allow anyone to grow.
We can think of science as an endless ladder, and reaching the upper steps requires going through the basal ones. We are a small part of the world, so understanding it is essential for wise resource management.
Understanding the basis
What is science? Science is everything surrounding us. Pushed by curiosity, science is a procedure, a way of living through which we can learn about almost anything. Science includes all the existent knowledge of everything you can see daily, from the littlest particle to the biggest structure you can think about. Even invisible things, such as the tiny machinery that keep our body working, or the tiniest blocks that form metals or rocks.
Math, physics, chemistry, and biology are the foundations of all existing knowledge. They let us comprehend the structures and functions of everything. This understanding is what prepares us for different potential situations.
How does science work? Why is it so reliable?
The method. The way science achieves the results makes the foundations of knowledge strong. Always based on previous research, scientists propose ideas about a description or a process. Later, they test those ideas to prove their accuracy.
When research achieves similar results, conclusions emerge, and we can rely on that information. The reliability of the conclusion depends on how tested the idea was. Then, the knowledge about a subject builds itself using scientific results and conclusions as bricks.
Science in everyday life
Can you imagine a day without interacting with electricity, plastic, agriculture, or medicine? If you cannot, then you cannot imagine a day without science. Most of us rely on the phone, a watch, or an alarm clock to wake up. We make breakfast with a coffee machine or use energy to boil water and grab items from the fridge.
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Then, we go to work, school, or college by bike, car, or bus. If you walk, I am sure that you will enjoy a comfortable pair of shoes or sneakers. All the things we use are a consequence of the technology and the understanding brought to our lives by science.
We all are, in a certain way, little scientists. Even though formal aspects such as publications, writing books, or congress presentations rely only on scientists, we all apply a little science more often than we think.
Imagine, for instance, the last time you had a problem you hadn’t had before. I am sure you thought about it, your previous knowledge of the subject, the alternatives to solve it and, finally, selected a possible solution. After that, you tried to solve it and got conclusions. You used the scientific method.
Solving problems
Science itself cannot solve all our problems. But if we know the basics of the world, we can start thinking about how and when to use it. It depends on us to put together the acquired knowledge for our purposes. Health and technology are probably the most familiar areas in which we think when we think about science.
How many times a day do you wash your hands? A long time ago, something so frequent for us now, such as handwashing, wasn’t even practised by doctors in the maternity ward. Eventually, biologists understood germ transmission dynamics and the importance of handwashing, and the prevention of infections started.
Fleming discovered penicillin accidentally when one of his essays went wrong. He studied its effect and took a decade of science to produce and purify the drug. In case you do not know, penicillium is an antibiotic able to fight diseases such as pneumonia, syphilis, and gonorrhoea.
It is through science the best way to use the available resources to solve our problems, but first, we must know the resources through basic studies.
References
https://undsci.berkeley.edu/understanding-science-101/
https://www.science.org.au/curious/policy-features/how-does-science-work
