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People have always been interested in whether there is life on other planets, whether there are other creatures like us inhabiting the worlds like ours. Or - whether it is totally unlike ours and how it all looks like. In all times, science helped the inspired ones to search, study, investigate and predict. A huge variety of scientific researches, as well as brilliant literary pieces, was inspired by thoughts of life on other planets. Some people may say that it is not interesting of really important, but is it really not? We are not worth so much ourselves if we do not continue to investigate. As well as exploring new lands on our planet, we investigate other planets and satellites. Eventually these explorations will give answers to many questions. And until we find those answers, we should never stop the investigations. Science is a powerful thing. Its results can be dramatic, but anyway they are always vital because they give a push to either improving what we have got, or to eradicating the bad things that we have.
Some people argue that instead of spending money on space studies, it would be better to spend it on the development of medicine, to find cure for illnesses, and so on. But when the scientists are able to discover new life on other planets, they will simultaneously find new things which will undoubtedly help the medicine, science, and all humankind - even those people who are either uninterested in or skeptical about investigating space.
The seriousness of scientific research in the sphere of space has been explained by many outstanding scientists and authors. In his article "Can we know the Universe?", Carl Sagan remarks that in order to be a scientist one must, among other features, be courageous (Sagan, p.727). He says that science is not so much a frame of human's knowledge as it is a particular manner of thinking (Sagan, p. 727). Sagan explains that the main idea of science is pondering, analyzing, and comprehending. He says that whenever one starts thinking about the world, about our planet and other planets, about the way the things are - one is already doing science. The author describes the process of thinking as something extremely beautiful and exhilarating. He says that when one is trying to decipher the core of things, even if they seem minute and not very important, the person is already doing something very serious and meaningful. Sagan emphasizes that the person's thinking abilities improve as the person employs them more and more often (Sagan, p. 728). Sagan remarks that since people are "an intelligent species" (Sagan, p. 728), the use of intelligence gives them enjoyment and contentment. He compares human's brain to a muscle. Perception, according to Sagan, gives a person a kind of euphoria (Sagan, 7. 728). In this connection, the scholar induces the readers to think about to what extent the humans know the universe.
Sagan notices that there are two kinds of people: those who will gladly say that the humankind knows nothing for sure, and those who are convinced that the humankind has plenty of information. There are people who are afraid of having a universe with no more secrets and there are people whose biggest dream in life is to investigate each and every mystery in it (Sagan, p. 728). However, as Sagan remarks, even the small things are challenging to percept, let alone the universe (Sagan, p. 729). He explains that the things are rather complicated, and studying the universe would be much easier if it could be investigated under the strict laws of nature (Sagan, p. 730). Sagan says that no matter how many of such laws existed, the curious humans would learn them all in order to come closer to their aim of getting to know the universe. He explains that the people's aspiration to know everything is nothing else but science (Sagan, p. 730), and that is good that people are trying to investigate the world around them. Sagan remarks that science is vital because it pushes people to constant learning and finding out new things. He says that the universe in which everything would be known would be boring and uninspiring, while the universe in which there are things to yet discover gives food for thought, which is simple perfect (Sagan, pp. 731-732).
The importance of science is reflected in Diane Ackerman's article "Planets in the Sky of Diamonds." The author emphasizes the exceptional importance of investigating the space and at the same time she expresses her regret about the slow steps that the humankind is making in this direction (Ackerman, p. 715). She remarks that all generations have been interested in the space and in what it is like on other planets, whether there is life, whether there are conditions similar to ours. Ackerman argues that in order to complete such research, people need much better equipment - like "better eyes in the sky" and "faster robotic spaceships" (Ackerman, p. 715). The author says that in the period of the new openings, researches and inventions, scientists are more and more contemplating over the issue of how the world was actually made and what processes are happening in the universe at the moment (Ackerman, p. 715).
Ackerman believes that the stars have answers to a great number of questions, and thus they should be investigated by all possible means and with all accessible instruments. She emphasizes the fact that not only it is human's interest, but also almost a duty to find out what is happening in the universe and what kinds of things exist there. Thus, Ackerman is convinced that science is what should be developed in order to answer many questions about the humankind's historical past and, quite probably, about its future (Ackerman, p. 715).
In his article "Anybody out there?", Oliver Sacks also raises the question about the scientific research and its utmost importance for the people. He remarks that everything in the universe has causative-consecutive connections, and if the scientists discover the simplest issues, they will gradually get to answer the most intricate questions both about the Earth and about the whole universe (Sacks, pp. 743-744). Sacks is convinced that proper investigation is needed in order to get evidence about the other planets (Sacks, 745). He thinks that it is quite probable that one day microorganisms may be found on other planets and that the scientists will be able to make numerous conclusions and assumptions from it (Sacks, 745).
Thus, science is definitely a friend of the humankind. With its immeasurable treasures, both already discovered and still waiting to be noticed, with its amazing findings, which sometimes may be shocking and sometimes quite surprising, with its inspiring breakthroughs and motivating failures, science is what has been shaping out our whole world and what keeps making it a better place. The future of science is the future of whole mankind, and no one should ever doubt its value.
Science inspires, it gives food for thought, it produces the seeds of doubt which induce to learn to defend one's opinion - it is a phenomenal friend of the humankind.
Works cited
Ackerman, Diane. "Planets in the Sky of Diamonds." The McGraw Hill Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines. Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2013. 714-715. Print.
Sacks, Oliver. "Anybody out there?" The McGraw Hill Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines. Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2013. 742-746. Print.
Sagan, Carl. "Can We Know the Universe?" The McGraw Hill Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines. Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2013. 727-732. Print.
