When I became a public figure in Switzerland a few years ago, I started writing these columns. At the time, I felt it was my duty and wanted to share my love of science with readers. I also wanted to show what research is and what it can do for us. In this last column, I want to take a look at the helicopter and write again about why I love science so much.
Science exists in many forms. In its simplest form, it can confirm or disprove specific ideas we have about the world. For example, when Covid-19 began, many believed that masks would slow the spread of the virus. Others have argued the opposite. Initially, these were just guesses based on the state of knowledge at the time. But over time, data has been collected and masks have been shown to actually slow the spread of the virus.
But science can do so much more, and this is where it gets really exciting. It can help unravel the hidden mechanisms of nature. Over the past few decades, thanks to it, we have learned a lot about the gigantic structure of the universe, for example, or about the microscopic structure of matter and atoms, including DNA. Now one might think that these conclusions are purely descriptive, but in my opinion they are not. Because understanding the laws of nature allowed us to take one more step forward and apply these rules to create new creative things. A good example of this is the rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines, which would not have been possible without decades of understanding of DNA and mRNA.
But what fascinates me most is how science can challenge our thinking. Sometimes we ask questions of nature, often through experiments whose results simply do not fit any hypothesis. And then the only solution is to push the boundaries of our thinking! A good example of this from the history of science is the fact that light can be both a wave and a particle at the same time! This takes some getting used to, as our sensory-focused brains don’t take the idea for granted.
In this sense, for me, science is one of the most wonderful adventures of mankind. It can reinforce our understanding of the world, create new things and, most importantly, it can seriously challenge our simian brain and therefore our humanity at its core. Because no, we are not at the center of the universe and not above other animals. We ourselves are just small animals on a distant planet at the edge of an infinite universe. Thanks for reading all these years!
PS: This text was written not by artificial intelligence, but by a person ☺