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Asked by louisekennedy to Meeks, Pete, Stephen, Steve, Tom on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
Question: Research from which science affects the wider world the most?
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Stephen Curry answered on 14 Jun 2010:
Hello Louise!
That’s a tricky one since there are so many areas of science that impact the world. Perhaps one of the most obvious in is the area of human health where our growing understanding of the origins of illness has helps to save millions of lives (and radically increase life-span). The ‘germ’ theory of infectious disease led to improvements in public sanitation (i.e. clean water, working sewers), vaccines and antibiotics that had a huge impact in the 20th century. But there is lots still to do. We need to find new drugs for the major infectious diseases such as malaria, TB and HIV which have proved tough to crack.
Looking to the future there are serious problems ahead with climate change and energy, which are of course linked. We need to get away from burning fossil fuels and it will be down to scientists (and engineers) to find the answers to that (burning – ha!) question.
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Steve Roser answered on 14 Jun 2010:
I think this is one of the most difficult questions! I guess that you could say that medicine has saved the most lives, and you could argue that understanding the physics and chemistry of t he upper atmosphere might just help us in global warming, but I guess for most people being healthy and safe is a big priority, so I would choose medical research in teh widest sense
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Tom Hartley answered on 14 Jun 2010:
Hi Louise,
This is a very tough question. Scientific knowledge has built up over many centuries, and the science with the most impact (all other things being equal) is the one that has been around longest. I would put them in the following order: Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology. You might think that Biology is the most important, because it has the most direct implications for human health, but I think the most important innovations in Biology have depended on discoveries in Chemistry and Physics (for instance, X-ray crystallography was needed for the discovery of the structure and function of DNA), which in turn owe a great deal to Maths.
This is obviously a highly debateable question though. What do you think?
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Marieke Navin answered on 14 Jun 2010:
Wow Louise what an amazing question. My first thought for this was that I should say medicine or medical research – things that ultimately save lives. But physics is the study of everything after all….and look at the internet – how much has that effected the world? And that was invented by particle physicists as a way to share data. Then look at the technology that created ipods…the telephone…electricity….this is all physics that has impacted our world in unimaginable ways.
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Pete Edwards answered on 17 Jun 2010:
I’m not sure there’s a fair way to make a judgement on this BUT I’m going to say physics (well I would wouldn’t I) 🙂
Physics is the fundamental science and the work of physicists has had a major impact on many other areas of science from biology and chemistry and engineering to geology and medicine and computer science etc..
Comments
kamile commented on :
By saying that one specific topic is the most important cannot be correct. All of them are incredibly vital for our world to function every day and without either one we would be lacking tons of information! I however propose, not to judge which one is the most important by how long it has been around, but by how much information it has provided the human race, how useful it is, and how much more we could be able to gain from it.
Stephen commented on :
That’s a very astute comment, Kamile. I think all of the scientists would heartily agree with you, since everyone mentioned in some way the interconnections between different areas of investigation.