What Science Tells Us

A few days ago, my daughter brought home her physics textbook, asking for my help in understanding it. "Rutherford shot alpha particles into a metal thin film, and from this experiment, he inferred that the protons in the nucleus were gathered at certain points." The one sentence embarrassed me, not my daughter. It implied too many facts to be explained within five minutes. I understood why many students find physics so difficult and boring. Science, especially physics, cannot be easily digested in a short period of time. Science requires us to wrestle with numerous difficult concepts, questions, and doubts before a ray of light illuminates its knowledge for us. Acquisition of knowledge without inquiry will only cause burden and pain.

What happens if one person truly studies science? They will be surprised by the exquisite order, balance, and harmony that sustains this world. You will find out how the stinging solar energy in the middle of the day accumulates in plants and supplies active energy to our bodies, how the water drawn from urine and waste is purified and enters our mouths again, and why the earth's surface is filled with oxygen to breathe. It is the role of science to show that a meal, a cup of water, and a handful of breathing are not natural, but special gifts that the universe provides us in a fantastic way. You may find that "financial techniques," "the latest trends," and "the habit of succeeding" are secondary, perhaps very minor, problems compared to these everyday wonders. Science primarily leads us to poets, philosophers, and non-worldly meditators. It extends a much larger scale of horizons than the problems we struggle with every day.

However, it seems that more people are discouraged than are amazed by science. Science believes that the world moves mechanically according to established laws and tries to analyze everything, including the human body and the brain. Artificial intelligence is gradually replacing our intellectual abilities, and biology says that we are just a species that survived the competition for survival. We feel that there is no basis for meaning or dignity in the universe and life just happens to exist here. But this is what you get when you treat science superficially. Scientific facts, like poetry, are something to be meditated on.

If you thoroughly examine the story of science, you will find that it is not simple enough to draw a hasty conclusion about the universe and the human beings in it. There are deeper mysteries and wonders where science has dug, and these may make you feel that there is an abyss that science may never be able to solve forever. Einstein said "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." The fact that we have scientific knowledge means that we are not "trapped" in the laws of science. When you reach the top of the tower of science, which is firmly built by reason, you will feel that the universe is larger and greater than even that tower can reach. Only then do we know that this universe and its humans are beyond the scope of science to explore. It is the true role of science to show us the nobility of all beings.

By Hwang In-kag, Professor, Department of Physics