Some
of the hottest topics today are science-related:
the human genome, DNA research and identification,
bio-technology, asteroids, the environment, cloning, ecology, laser
research, pollution, black holes, the ozone layer, and global warming.
Things
happen that make you want to learn more about how and why they happen.
An earthquake shatters homes and takes lives; and once the dust
has settled, you want to know more about earthquakes.
When a volcano erupts, it's only natural to want to learn about
where and when volcanic action is possible.
You
see a film about sharks and the behavior of sharks fascinates you; or
you see photographs of Australian koala bears, and you want to know
more about these cute marsupials who diet exclusively on eucalyptus
leaves.
If
you're not a science student, professional scientist or someone with
an active interest in the sciences, do you really need to keep up with
the developments and findings in the fields of biology or chemistry or
physics?
You do if you want to have an intelligent opinion about many of
the current scientific issues that directly affect you.
As
Hippocrates wrote, “There are in fact two things, science and
opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.”
Cloning
and global warming, about which I've previously written, are both
subjects about which people have opinions.
Few people are familiar with the science.
Most scientists oppose human cloning but favor embryonic
cloning as a potential cure for organ deficiencies or diseases like
diabetes.
Some politicians even argue against embryonic cloning on moral
grounds.
Do you know enough about the science of cloning to be able to
take a position?
What if you needed a cloned embryo to fight off a disease?
Is
global warming a real problem?
Many scientists and environmentalists say that it is.
Others disagree, claiming that the scientists who say that it's
a problem have based their conclusions on faulty science.
How often do scientists admit error?
Are
you more likely to try to further defend your original position?
In the face of evidence to the contrary, many who predicted a
global warming catastrophe, simply refuse to look at any new evidence.
Do
you think about the possibilities of bio-terrorism or chemical
warfare?
Do you know enough about these sciences to consider what action
may be necessary for your own protection?
Is
it possible for an atomic bomb to be carried in a suitcase?
Have you looked into the developments in atomic physics to find
out if such a scenario is either possible or probable?
These
are scientific issues that every intelligent person needs to explore;
and since most intelligent people have computers with access to the
Internet, it's not even necessary to make trips to the library. Much
of the information needed to keep abreast of scientific developments
that affect us can be found on the Internet.
There
are two approaches to locating scientific (or any other) information
on the Internet.
If you have a specific topic to search for, you can simply type
the word or phrase describing that topic into a search engine like Google,
AlltheWeb, Vivisimo
or Teoma.
The search engines will then bring up a list of sites with
brief descriptions of what's on the sites they list.
Once
you get into the habit of quickly scanning a page for what you're
looking for, you can click on the links that have what you want and
skip over the rest.
With this approach, you can scan about 10 pages of links (a
total of 100 listed) in 20 minutes, checking out three or four
specific sites on each page, bookmarking the ones that you want to
return to for more complete information.
The
other approach is to go from the general to the specific.
This is an excellent approach for those who want to discover
what scientific information is available on the Web.
You begin by clicking on science in a directory like Yahoo
or Excite.
With
Yahoo, you come up with a page of about 60 sub-directories.
Scanning the page, you'll see that the main links, with over
1000 sites each, include agriculture, astronomy, biology, chemistry,
computer science, earth sciences, ecology, engineering, geography,
geology and geophysics, mathematics, physics and space.
Choose
the sub-topic that interests you most.
Assuming that you want to use this tremendous resource for
learning, give yourself an hour a day for surfing your chosen subject.
Let's
say you choose biology.
When you click on biology, you come up with another page of
about 60 sub-topics. Scanning this page alone gives you an idea of the
vastness of the field.
You'll also find ten or eleven introductory resources.
They're a good starting place for your explorations in biology.
Do
you want to look into botany, cell biology, genetics, evolution,
marine or molecular biology, neuroscience or zoology?
Zoology alone has over 12,000 links under the category of
animals, insects and pets. By the time you've burrowed down this far,
you can check out the sites, on the bottom half of the page, with
general information on animals.
Then you can return to the links to various types of animals
and related topics.
If
you didn't know it already, you'll discover that arachnids include
horseshoe crabs, spiders, scorpions, ticks and mites; and in case you
didn't know it, ticks are those little black bloodsuckers that attach
themselves to your pets, and mites are those tiny creatures that cause
you to itch for three days after they bite.
You'll
also discover lots of links to sites about birds, fish, mammals,
reptiles and amphibians and wildlife, along with 30 other
subcategories of animals, insects and pets.
Mammals, of course, is the largest category, with 70 types
listed, including every type of mammal you'd find in a zoo plus your
four-legged pets.
Having
trouble naming your new cat?
Click on "Cats" and then on the further sub-category
"Names."
You'll find five sites with thousands of names for cats.
Keep
in mind that you can always return to any of the subcategories at
levels above by clicking on the item named at the top of the page.
To
keep up with the latest developments in Science, I can recommend a
number of useful sites:
The
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
is the world's largest general science organization and publisher of
the journal Science.
With more than 138,000 members and 275 affiliated societies,
AAAS serves as an authoritative source for information on the latest
developments in science and bridges gaps among scientists,
policy-makers and the public to advance science and science education.
The Web site also has Science online.
The
National Science Foundation (NSF)
features news from the forefront of Science and Engineering.
For
a weekly online magazine of science, Science
News covers the gamut of topics. One week it featured articles on
anthropology (a skull find that gave a new twist to the evolutionary
chain), DNA detectors, nutrition, and animal communication.
National
Geographic has a virtual observatory with close-ups of stars,
galaxies and nebula identified by the Hubble Space Telescope.
According
to Scientific American,
"Science has become the ultimate source of the most
influential ideas transforming the world. Consider the evidence.
Computers are the engines of the global economy. Three of the
biggest international controversies are over the use of genetically
modified crops, the prevention of global warming, and the feasibility
of antimissile defenses.”
Also
according to Scientific American, most people don't even know that
they are eating genetically modified crops; nor do they know the risks
involved.
Nearly 60% of people in a new poll said they didn't want
genetically engineered crops introduced into the food supply.
But when informed the ingredients were already in at least half
the products on store shelves, almost half said they must be safe.
They also didn't seem to know that they could find informative
sites on the Internet.
The questions and answers are all there, on the Internet.
This
is not to say that all of the questions are the right ones or that all
of the answers are final.
As Arthur Koestler wrote, in The Act of Creation,
“Einstein's space is no closer to reality than Van Gogh's
sky. The glory of science is not in a truth more absolute than the
truth of Bach or Tolstoy, but in the act of creation itself. The
scientist's discoveries impose his own order on chaos, as the composer
or painter imposes his; an order that always refers to limited aspects
of reality, and is based on the observer's frame of reference, which
differs from period to period as a Rembrandt nude differs from a nude
by Manet.”
However,
to miss learning about science’s frame of reference at any time is
nothing short of self-destruction.
