The Need For Science

By: Yash Shandilya

Have you ever wondered about the miracles that your mobile phone performs? Many thinkers, philosophers, and scientists have already claimed that our technology would have been just like magic to the people of just a few generations ago. But we seem to be taking it for granted. Allow me to put that into perspective for you.

A device the size of your palm contains over a billion little transistors, each of which is smaller than most human viruses. And yet we have been producing such devices for over two decades nonchalantly. Can you imagine the precision required to manufacture such chips?

But that is the realm of small things. Let us go towards the other end of the spectrum. We have sent rockets into space that weigh as much as 2000 kilograms. And sometimes even more than that. If that doesn’t impress you that is probably because you have no idea about the effort required to achieve such a feat. Think of it this way. No matter which gun you have, it can never fire a bullet fast enough to escape our planet’s outer bounds. And that bullet is tiny compared to a rocket.

You must have seen those diagrams of the solar system in schools. They are nowhere close to reality. If the solar system was scaled so that a 1000 kilometers in the outer space are represented by a millimeter, the paper required to make that sketch would be 150 kilometers long. And the diameter of an average city in India is about 25 km. Let that sink in for a moment. Now think about Voyager 1. It is a space probe sent by the scientists on September 5, 1977. This probe has already reached the outer bounds of our solar system, dodging asteroids and whatnot on its way. That is what we are capable of.

Now you might be wondering why am I going on about all this stuff. Well, what I mentioned is trivial knowledge. There is nothing in it that is difficult to understand and yet most of the people reading this would be surprised. Why is that?

The answer, unfortunately, is that we have never been told about the forefront of scientific exploration. Mr. Elon Musk’s idea* of a human colony in space still seems like a far-fetched fantasy for most of us. Today I am writing this article because recently I read somewhere that the annual military budget of the US is worth more than 50 years of NASA budget. The US is just one of many countries that are working in the same way. During the Cold War, space exploration was considered to be a representation of a country’s might. And so, when the war ended, the rate of development in that field also decreased considerably. Imagine what could have been done if that research had not slowed down.

Earth’s resources are dwindling rapidly. Alternative energy sources are being researched constantly. But it is entirely possible that at some point in the future, we might need to colonize somewhere out there. That prospect is scary and exciting at the same time.

The point that I have been trying to make all this time is that science needs to be promoted, and not just taught in schools for better marks. Children need to be told about the wonders that it creates. Why is it that everyone wants to be an astronaut in primary school and somehow end up working night shift in a job they do not want? Don’t get me wrong. Every job is important, but this one, in particular, is still looked upon as something out of a video game. If this wasn’t such a daunting situation, I’d be laughing at it.

Curiosity is what brought us to this phase of human development. Now is not the time to give up that curiosity. If anything, it is time to reinforce that way of thinking. The words here might be my own, but the ideas are inspired by the leading minds of our time like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Michio Kaku and many others.

No article related to science would be complete without the mention of ISRO’s recent achievement of 104 satellite launch. All of us should be proud of what our scientists have achieved. And the only way to continue doing it is to instill curiosity in the future generations and let them work to satisfy their thirst for knowledge themselves instead of forcing them to study hard for an impressive package.

* Search SpaceX on the internet to find out more about the aforementioned idea.

Read More articles by Yash Shandilya at https://sticksandstones11.wordpress.com/