Have we forgotten that the world we live in today is here, to a great extent, because of science? Take a look around you. I be you will be hard pressed to not find a dozen or more items you depend on every day, even take for granted, within one minute of your observation. Let me help remind you of some of the critical things we use every day which might not be quite so obvious:
Hand-held vacuum cleaners scratch resistant sunglasses Nitinol wire braces better brake linings long life car tires most cosmetics | air-cushioned sports shoes GPS moisture wicking clothing wireless pacemakers weather forecasts home cleaning products | firefighter respirators winglets on airplanes DNA analysis Home blood pressure kits personal alarm systems synthetic fabrics |
Now maybe this lack of awareness is simply due to the fact that so many of us do not understand how science works, or that only incredibly brilliant people can possibly understand science. NONSENSE! Most of us actually do science every day. We form hypothesis, informed guesses about how something we want to accomplish might turn out. We experiment, try various methods of accomplishing the task, and then come to a conclusion about which strategy worked best. That, in a nut shell, is science. Nothing mysterious or mystical about it. Science is simply a prescribed strategy for learning how the physical world around us works. If more of us took the time to learn more about the process of science, maybe we wouldn't be so afraid of it.
To get you started, here is a link to a very simple, easy to understand website designed to teach us how science works: