Science doesn't answer all the questions - because it is not supposed to

Very often I hear people criticizing science by arguing that it doesn't solve all the problems or answer all the questions. This point is regularly raised during the discussions where science and religion are discussed together and pitched against each other. Science vs. religion is a very common and popular debate topic. They are pitched against each other often and people try to evaluate both disciplines based on their own perceptions, knowledge, likes, and dislikes. I want to discuss specifically science and its impact on our society, especially the pointless accusations that science has not solved any major problems for humankind or science claims to know everything but then, doesn't answer all the questions. Some religious people say these things in a tone as if religion does solve all the problems or have all the answers. First of all, one should understand that science doesn't claim that it can answer all the questions or solve all the problems. People who think like this are either ignorant or are purposely saying this to mislead people or just saying this to malign science. First, problem-solving and knowledge generation is a continuous and never-ending process in science, so, it cannot claim to know everything or solve all the problems, it is always a work in progress. Secondly, science is not just an academic discipline or a subject of school curriculum, it is a way of thinking. It is a logical and systematic way of handling any question or problem. Any person can have a scientific aptitude, they can follow scientific methods to generate the same results that scientists generate, they don't need any formal education or degree to be called a scientist. I have seen many uneducated people making brilliant discoveries using their own logical and rational thinking, they are all scientists according to me. One can definitely become a scientist by profession by having proper training and education but this is not the only way to learn and practice science. I am a very lucky person that I came across many people from different disciplines who instilled a scientific aptitude in me.

I clearly remember one lecture from my college days where one of our chemistry professors who was also a very good poet asked question to our class, what is science? Many students tried to answer this question and finally, all of us agreed that "anything which we study systematically is science." Now what do we mean by "systematically"? It simply means using verifiable and reproducible methods. If things are not reproducible or if data is not verifiable independently, then it doesn't have any scientific significance. The evidence can be direct or indirect but it has to be there and the onus is always on the claimant to prove their claim. The biggest quality of science that attracted me to it is that it only believes in data, it doesn't care who produced that data, who proposed theories, or who carried out the experiments. The data has to be verifiable and reproducible for any scientific experiment to be successful. Even the data from unsuccessful experiments is very valuable in science as it provides important insight to others working in that field. My experiment or Einstein's experiment are judged with the same skepticism and open-mindedness by the scientific community, we both can be proven right or wrong by any person who can produce the data to prove our experiments wrong. It doesn't really matter that Einstein is a Nobel laureate, his theories are open to challenge like any other scientist's theories. This is another interesting point, there is no absolute authority who is unquestionable in science. Everything is open for debate and anyone can raise any question about anything. All one needs is verifiable and reproducible experimental data to challenge any hypothesis. This is a very reliable method to proceed forward and generate reliable knowledge, this prevents getting stuck in a particular mindset and avoids stagnation of knowledge. This is also one of the reasons why science has managed to solve so many problems and answer many questions that were considered mysteries just a few decades back. Let it be a problem related to water purification, vaccination, some disease management, related to transport, or even clothing or entertainment, scientific communities all over the world are busy tirelessly solving many problems from many diverse areas. They will continue to do so as long as they keep on asking questions. Asking questions and challenging the status quo are integral parts of scientific thinking. Please keep on questioning science and throwing new challenges towards scientists all over the world, constructive criticism will make it only better and stronger. 

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Communicating Science to the General Public

Many scientists are concerned about the lack of awareness in the general public about science, its discoveries, and its impact on human life. Many institutes, universities, scientific societies, and even scientists try their best to run various public outreach programs that can help in spreading awareness about science, its achievements, and its capabilities among the general population (who are not very well acquainted with science). All people associated with science want to do a better job of communicating science to the general public, but unfortunately, it is not an easy thing to do.

This problem of communication between scientists and the general public is very old; I think it started when scientific knowledge was labeled as complicated and limited to a few intellectuals. Scientists in the old days were considered rebels as they questioned most of the established beliefs and challenged many statements from holy books. This created an obvious rift between scientific knowledge and traditional knowledge, which resulted in this apparent disconnect. Today, many people believe that most scientists are atheists and don't believe in God or religion. Science or scientist don't force their opinion or theories on the general population; everything is open for debate and discussion in science. Asking a question is a basic requirement for the progress of science and knowledge, but this attitude is not welcomed in many other sections of life. This difference in attitude widened the gap between science and other fields. People are trying by various means to bridge this gap, but there are no easy solutions available for this. There are several other reasons for this disconnect between scientists and the general public. Some scientists put partial blame on the lay public because they think that many people have very little factual knowledge of science, whereas some scientists believe that blaming the public is not very useful, and scientists should think that the problem is with us, which is why we cannot communicate with them properly.

The problem is how to engage the nonscientific audience. Science is not very entertaining, and often people think its knowledge is not necessary for their survival. But this is not true, today's life is all about science, since we get up in the morning till we sleep at night, whatever we use, or experience, science plays some role in it. From our toothpaste to our sleeping bed, everything has some science involved in it. We are surrounded by scientific wonders and don't even realize it. A major problem in engaging and informing the public through education or various other activities is that people don't always pay attention, and if they listen, they often don't remember the things that scientists want them to remember. Science has helped us to solve many mysteries of life; there was no other way to understand them without scientific methods. I don't think people have given science its due. Divided public opinion about climate change, biased views about females and certain sections of society, racism, many religious superstitions, blind faith, sectarianism, etc., are some examples of a lack of proper scientific knowledge and understanding.

Science has helped humans to achieve many impossible things, and it has created a unique world around us. Our life is totally dependent on many inventions discovered by brilliant scientists. We don't realize it because they have become part of our day-to-day life. There is no field that is not benefited because of science and its achievements. I think if we want to name one reason for all the progress, comfort, and many positive changes in human life, credit goes to science. At the same time, many scientific discoveries are also responsible for some problems in the modern world, but the entire blame for this cannot be placed on science; but is mainly the result of human greed and misuse of technology for selfish purposes. The positive and negative effects of science are clearly visible, and critics of science only try to highlight the negative aspects of science. It's the need of today to clear many misconceptions about science and spread awareness among common people about the need for basic scientific knowledge and aptitude. Every person from any background can benefit from this, it's necessary for their and society's overall health and progress. It's the responsibility of both the scientific community and the general public to develop a scientific attitude that involves logical and rational thinking.

Thanks for reading, and please share your views.

References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)