Finding the Good: Everyday Science

Science, for me anyway, is often either A Big Thing or completely invisible. The Big Things are cool, like when the Hubble sends us another awe inspiring image or paleontologists find a fossil of Titanokorys gainesi. But today I am mindful of the science that I often overlook, like the reading glasses perched on my nose and the detergents and soaps in my home. I am also mindful of the science which once awed me and which I too readily forget, like the antibiotics which saved my newborn son’s life… and my leg… and probably everybody I know.

I take Pasteurization but milk used to be one of the biggest killers in the United States. Would my parents have survived without it? Would I have? My children?

My life would have been much less fun were it not for learning about biology and chemistry and physics. It might have been more fun if my high school chemistry teacher had not “accidentally” thrown out the ethanol that I was fermenting. Not that I am holding a grudge; not me.

I want to acknowledge one more bit of science: time. Were we not to understand it, our ancestors could not have navigated the oceans. My thermostat would not work. The GPS in my phone would not work.