Hey! I'm going to be making a post sometime in the near future on the topic of science and I'm interested in the science blogger's answer to a particular question - "Why do you love/like/choose to study science?" I'm hoping to compile the answers into a short piece of writing on enthusiasm and curiosity. Sorry this is a little strange- feel free, of course, to ignore this. Thank in advance, Amy.
As a person of scientific thought, I don’t really believe in immortal work. I think the sun will swallow the earth and eventually everything will perish with the heat death of the universe, and that many of the things we do and work so hard on are trivial when you think about it.
That said, I also believe that it’s human inclination to leave the world a better place than when we entered it, and that science is one of the safest and most direct ways to do that. As John Green says, “the marks humans leave are too often scars.” Science doesn’t directly seek to change the world, only to understand it, and I think that’s beautiful. I think it’s beautiful that ice is less dense than water, and that flowers arrange their petals in mathematical spirals, and that one day everything we know and have known and will know will be inconsequential.
And I think it’s beautiful that we seek to understand these things, despite knowing what it implies. And that we insignificant specks can understand these things. That we can see the world in a wider context, both knowing how trivial anger and hate are in respect to the grandeur of the universe, but also understanding the ephemeral value and wonder of love, and luck, and how the way a flower opens can be graphed on the same sine curve as the setting sun and the rolling waves.
