The Place of Science in Our World
It will be a great idea to start an international Research Institute where any scientific topic can be studied in the form of pure science and later to hand on the knowledge to scientists in the commercial world. This institute must be truly international so that no one national or race will have a monopoly on the available facilities. At the moment all research institutes are run by individual country. For example, we could produce building planks out of coconut husks when these husks are properly treated and made to combine with fluids or latex from our trees or plants in the tropical rain forest. If we can make the material cheaper than our present timber we will be able to save the rain forest from the whole world. Our future generation will have the chance to go into the jungle and enjoy seeing the crystal clear water and huge trees with trunks about three meters in diameter. Our lumberjacks will work in the factories instead of in the jungles. The rain forests will remain as our carbon sinks and warehouse of biodiversity.
Sifting cultivation and tribal farming caused over 4.35 millions hectares of land to be burned and cleared annually in Indonesia alone. These are the rain forests which are fast disappearing from our planet. These farmers need to make a living. Science can help them to find better and cheaper fertilizers and more produce. Research must be done on how we may use the same piece of land to produce crops year after year and how we can use the same hectares to produce many times more so that eventually people from all over the world will need very little land area to produce many times more foods.
Another topic we should encourage researchers to work on is to produce a metal which may be as hard as diamond and yet many times cheaper so that we can build better ships and aircrafts. The whole world will benefit because transportation, in whatever form, will be cheaper and faster and businesses will prosper to a new height.
The trees and plants from all over the world must be computerized and studied, each species properly recorded so that the medicinal values and other information can be made available to other scientists. By recording all the data, we allow other scientists to go on to the next frontier at a faster rate because if the scientist starts at stage one, he may only reach stage four when he dies. By making the research data available, the next bright person will be able to continue from stage four and maybe reach stage eight by the time he passes away. The next scientist may be a lucky one. He may continue from stage eight and strikes success at stage ten. All the three scientists have spent only 30 years, and by then a metal as good as diamond, and yet many times cheaper may have been discovered and marketed all over the world.
Man has the power to create miracles. The scientists are the people who will create the basic principles for miracles to happen. To the caveman, our electric generator is a miracle. If we pursue our frontiers of knowledge in science sincerely, there will be millions of miracles which will happen in the near future.
One life time is simply too short for a lot of research work to be carried out. Assuming that a bright student gets his Ph.D at age 30. That person has only 25 years to spend on research because he has to retire at age 55. (For Western countries the retirement age is 65.) Not many people would want to start a job unless they are sure what they do will be properly succeeded by others and that fund will always for the research to be continued.
How does a research scientist go on doing his job if he has to worry about whether the next ruling government will stop granting fund for his research projects? To solve this problem maybe the research institutes must be financed by private organizations and preferably administered by international bodies so that the researchers will not worry about anything else except the topic they are working on.
What we know about the world is very little when compared to what we do not know. If all the sand on this planet is the knowledge, then what we know about the universe is less than one grain of sand. What we do not know is the remaining amount of sand left on this planet.
It does not matter if we do not see that results of our research. Our future generations will definitely benefit. By then, they will have a better world to live in and they will enjoy a quality life.
By moving into the frontiers of knowledge in science, we will be able to assure a peaceful world for the next thousands of years. The Second World War would not have been started, if the junior commissioned officers in the Japanese Imperial Army, who mostly came from the farming families, did not see their parents having a very touch time earning a living from the limited farms. If these farmers at that time were having the correct equipment and their farms were very profitable, their sons would not have thought of conquering other lands by force. Likewise, today we must assure the whole world that each nation can survive and prosper so that all nations can exist peacefully. The one sure way to do this is to do research in science so that every citizen of this planet will benefit. Science will provide us with all we need. It cannot bring us all we wish. There is the huge field we have not even tried yet. Why not we start now and be very serious in our research? After all if we don’t need whatever results we derived from the research, they can be given to others who need them. Isn’t this a great deed?
The beauty of science is that a person can establish one theory today. By tomorrow, another person can come forward to prove that theory was wrong. Scientific knowledge is not limited. Just like our universe, it does not have a limit. If there is a limit for our universe, what is the next portion after our limit? Because science deals with truth, it is indeed very difficult for the common people to understand. For example, if we ask whether the position of the electron remains the same? The answer is “NO”. If we asked if the position of the electron is in motion? The answer is again “NO”. If we asked if the position of the electron is at rest? The answer is again “NO”. Reputable scientists from all over the world confirmed the answers as No for all the three questions. Yet, for the non-scientists this answer is absurd.
As fossil fuel prices are escalating every week, we will have to look for alternate fuels. More and more grants will be made available for research. Researchers will have more chances to study on how the palm oil can be better made used of, which will be possible to replace our present petrol. The study of solar energy, which is still at the infant stage, will also receive more grants and attract more talents. Solar energy will by then be cheaper than the fossil fuels. What are the petroleum exporting countries going to do with their crude oil? Are they going to drink it?
