A-Z: Science

What does science mean to me?

Science is a way to study the world. It means not taking everything at face value, but questioning, observing, experimenting, and drawing conclusions based on evidence. The answer to one question can inspire more questions. It's a way of constructing a web of knowledge tying together everything in the universe. It's awe-inspiring to look at the night sky -- the universe writ large -- or a photograph of a molecule -- the universe writ small -- and think about how we can study both extremes. It's also amazing to consider something something such as the human body and peer into the various levels--organs, tissues, cells, organelles, molecules, and atoms -- that make it up.

I'd adopted. When I was a teenager, I studied genetics in the hope I might be able to learn about my biological parents. However, I soon became interested in the discipline for its own sake and planned to become a geneticist. Although that didn't work out, I still read about science. I've looked into joining some amateur science projects, but I don't have the time right now. Perhaps that's something I can do when I retire.

When you look at little children exploring the world, they experiment to figure out how things works. If we're all scientists when we're young, what happens when we grow up?