Of course, I love science. Science is what makes the world go round. Well, at least the understanding of why the world goes around.
Science is responsible for a significant portion of our lives. Without science, we would not be reading this on our computers, iPads, or Smartphones. We wouldn’t be watching TV later or pulling out leftover pizza from our refrigerators.
So, it bothers me to no end when people dismiss science concerning things like a vaccination that will end a pandemic. Sidebar here. I don’t really watch TV during the day, but it is normally on. I like to have that noise going while I do my work around the house. Yesterday, there was a movie playing about a contagion on the loose, and it was killing hundreds of thousands of people. All the people wanted the antigen. They were fighting to get their hands on the shot that would save them. As I thought about the other movies I’d seen along these lines, it seemed true for all of them. Every plot had people scrapping to get the antidote.
And here we are in real life, where 50% of Americans would rather see the dying continue. All because they think the science is bunk. This real-life seems stranger than fiction.
Back to incredible science. Throughout the ages, we have been fortunate enough to have thousands upon thousands of gifted and intelligent people who have brought us to where we are today, in technology, medicine, human understanding, and more.
Among those have been the cream of the crop. It isn’t easy to narrow the list, but most people can agree on the top three. We know them well, but here are some things you may not have heard before.
1. Albert Einstein. The genius physicist, best known for his findings on the relationship between space and matter, E=mc2.
But he had a strenuous personal life too. Albert’s second son, Eduard, whom they affectionately called “Tete,” was diagnosed with schizophrenia. As such, he was institutionalized for most of his adult life. Eduard was fascinated with psychoanalysis and was a big fan of Sigmund Freud. Albert corresponded with his son in letters. Sadly, they never saw one another again after Albert immigrated to the U.S. in 1933. Eduard died at the age of 55 in a psychiatric clinic in 1965.
2. Marie Curie. Marie spent a lot of time working with Uranium. This would kill her one day. But. In 1903, Curie, her husband, and Becquerel won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on radioactivity. Marie was the first woman to win a Nobel.
They must have been well-rounded people. Two years after winning the award, Marie and Pierre Curie took part in investigations of a woman named Eusapia Palladino. She was a medium who claimed she could channel the dead. They attended a number of seances. Anyway, Pierre thought some of the feats Palladino performed were the real deal — like levitating objects and tables. But old Marie didn’t seem to be quite as convinced. I hope they weren’t there for long, though. For Eusapia’s sake.
3. Isaac Newton. I love Einstein, but Newton might be my favorite. It would take too long to list all his scientific achievements here. He did so much: His groundbreaking work on light and color, his development and refinement of reflecting telescopes, and other fundamental work in math and heat. He discovered law, after law, after law.
In 1665, the bubonic plague hit England. Newton had been at Cambridge University, and they closed their doors. So Newton was forced to return home to Woolsthorpe Manor. He was out in the garden one day. And that is when he saw an apple fall from a tree, providing him with the inspiration to eventually formulate his law of universal gravitation.
Here’s the coolio. In 2010, a NASA astronaut, Piers Sellers, carried a piece of the ancient apple tree aboard the space shuttle Atlantis for a mission to the International Space Station. Also, that original apple tree continues to grow at Woolsthorpe Manor.
Others who should be here: Charles Darwin. Nikola Tesla. Galileo Galilei. Ada Lovelace. Pythagoras. And more.
I’m so thankful for science and those great people who have helped it along.
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“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
― Isaac Asimov
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“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
― Carl Sagan
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“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”
― Marie Curie
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The behind the scenes of science. Trees in space.
