Remember as a kid, everyone wanted to be this guy at some point. The one chemist looking crazy and mixing waters that ended up changing colors, exploding when it bubbled, cured an ailment, or quite the opposite. There was something that appealed to us of discovery, mystery, the diabolical laughter, congratulations, perhaps money. But we were too young to realize just how prestigous that was. We were too young to cling to that hope and instead picked the career that dealt with action, peril, adventure, danger. Becoming an archaeologist became appealing when we saw Jurassic Park, although there were no genetic cloning experiments for resurrecting prehistoric animals. A fire fighter called out to us as well, a job with honor, always on call, but scarcely needed for a fire. A professional stuntman even, oh how intense would that have been?
But, this image accurately depicts the process of research for the chemist. An idea is sparked and is boiled down in the mind, then to manifest it into material, it begins to be vaporized and mixed with creativity. With the mind, it is art when a person explores new territory in a manner that is organized, despite its complexity. Analyzed and researched through time spent on the product and material being created, the end result is a ground-breaking finding. What is being found, for what purpose, that is all something that entirely depends on the research and the scientist. Prestige and respect will always be given to a scientist who discovers something new in scientific community. In the case of the world as a whole, if the product is destructive, as revolutionary it may be, it will be turned from being an acheivment and a breakthrough to being nothing more than a tool of death. Such a shame.
Both sides are very easily understood. On one end, there are people who only ridicule “these tools of death” for the sake of saving the planet. It is true that the greatest threat to the world is ourselves. But, at the same time, why save so many lives and help with overcrowding (too radical?). On the side of science, all it is is advancement. There are times when i look out over the city and see it as the epitome of human waste and the disgusting mark it is on our precious planet (why hippies live in cities, i will never understand). Something needs to be done, and that is what drives science. Scientific research for society is a push for change and advancement. A typical research scientist is a primary deviant and believes he is right and is doing nothing wrong. Just by researching something new, he is deviating from the norms in the world and creating something that would change the world, even if it was a small one.
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