Lemurian Cogitations

How Science Serves Man

I'd like to share with you today an artilce that I wrote back in 1999. Read on. :-)

HOW SCIENCE SERVES MAN
by Prof. Ernesto “Boogie” C. Boydon, M.S.C.S.
July 18, 1999

The insatiable quest for knowledge has always been man’s biggest driving force that propelled him from a primitive existence to a lifestyle characterized by convenience and advanced intelligence. And it has always been an inherent quality borne by man’s natural domination over his surrounding environment. Science is the formalization of this instinctive quest for knowledge. As noted scientist Albert Einstein puts it succinctly ”The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.”¹ It presents what would otherwise seem to be mere accidental discoveries as a disciplined formulation of thought, hypothesis, investigation, analysis and conclusion. It performs “observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.”²

But science goes beyond simply discovering and explaining man’s environment and surrounding phenomena. More than this, science has always been the vehicle for innovative improvements that have caused civilizations to leapfrog and promote generally more beneficial living conditions. Science has always served mankind by its continuous search to find solutions to man’s everyday concerns and conceive and give birth to numerous inventions that reduce the stress of toil and pressure of work in everyday life. From the first accidental discovery of fire by primitive man to the subsequent taming of its accompanying heat and light energies man has channeled these discoveries to innumerable fruitful products. All of modern day transportation that uses energy in one form or another traces its roots from the steam engine and the steam locomotive. The formal understanding of lightning’s energy has lead to electricity and it would be very difficult for us now living in the modern world to imagine ourselves without electricity. The continuous study of living organisms and the interactions of biological species has led to untold advancements in the field of medicine. The invention of the computer and successive enhancements to its basic core has now brought about highly sophisticated machines that has freed a lot of men from servile and menial tasks.

It is an exciting prospect to know that science continuous in its onward quest to capture more territories in the uncharted seas of man’s ignorance. A hundred years ago, Benjamin Franklin wrote “… with nice instruments and the spirit of experiment, the progress of human knowledge will be rapid and discoveries made of which we have at present no conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence.” 3 That hundred years of which he speaks of is already the reality or our present age.

1 The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations is licensed from Columbia University Press. Copyright © 1993, 1995 by Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
2 The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from INSO Corporation; further reproduction and distribution restricted in accordance with the Copyright Law of the United States. All rights reserved.
3 The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations is licensed from Columbia University Press. Copyright © 1993, 1995 by Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.