By Dr Juan Carlos Algaba
Since immemorial times, at the dawn of civilization, much further back than history can tell, humankind has always tried to find meaning to its existence and its position in the universe. As humans, we have an inherent curiosity to know the world around us, we were born to discover. Scientists are simply children who have not lost their passion to discover the world they live in, who continue with their unwavering curiosity, asking the same kinds of questions even when they have grown up, and searching for the answers to their questions.
Science, research, and critical thinking have been the tools that have helped us search for answers to the most fundamental questions. Thus, for example, with the Copernican revolution, we ceased to be the center of the universe and the Earth went from being the axis of all creation to becoming just one of many objects orbiting around the Sun, a star that later turned out to be quite ordinary. With Newton’s law of universal gravitation, we discovered that, contrary to what ancient civilizations thought, there is no separation between the skies and Earth, and that the laws governing both the celestial bodies and the ground beneath our feet are the same. The great milestones of history are marked by great feats: the discovery of America marks the transition to the modern age, and the industrial revolution opens the contemporary age. We live in a world where we have set foot on the moon, and we can set our eyes on the stars. There is no need to mention the social consequences that such scientific revelations and achievements had in those days.
In the same way that cultivating good manners and hobbies makes us grow as people, knowledge makes us grow as a society. It is science that marks the progress of society. Everything around us transpires technology, and that is possible only with science. What yesterday were simply the curious questions of a child scientist, today are the basis of modern technology. There was a time when it was a simple curiosity to know that moving a magnetic field generates an electric field, and today all power plants generate electricity from this idea. Curiosity about whether light is a wave or a particle has led to our automatic doors, scanners, electron microscopes, or television screens. The curiosity of Benjamin Thompson, the Earl of Rumford, when he saw how heat was generated when making cannons, was the key to discovering that heat is not a fluid, but a form of energy, which turned thermodynamics upside down, with all that it implies for the study of engines, motors and machines. Even if we did not take Einstein’s theory into account, GPS and our cell phones would not work. Once we know how the Sun works, we can try to emulate it to obtain clean energy to replace our nuclear reactors.
Unfortunately, society, by enclosing us in what surrounds us, by focusing on the practical and the immediately applicable, has clipped our wings and made us forget about what amazed us as children. And at this point, the questions that arise are completely different: What is the point of knowing how many stars there are? What does it matter that some stars are brighter than others? Why should we care about all that? As a consequence, we live in an era that oozes science, from synthetic sneakers to tablets to smartphones, but where almost no one knows the basic science that makes them work. And that’s very dangerous.
Society takes all the benefits that science has brought as something “already given by default”, and it is very easy to belittle the results of science because, out of ignorance, they do not meet the expectations that Hollywood movies have instilled in people, or they do not fit their own criteria. It is very common to see situations in which, after using certain technology almost daily, the science behind that same technology is rejected. A very clear example can be seen in the attacks against telephone structures and fires of 5G antennas motivated by conspiracy theories associating radio waves with virus-generated diseases. All while, with not doubt, the perpetrators of such attacks use their smartphones, radio, television and internet, which need such antennas to function. There are many schools (yes, those institutions where people are supposed to learn!) and collectives that declare themselves “in favor of a society free of electromagnetic radiation” without understanding, it seems, that the natural light they receive every day from the Sun is also an electromagnetic wave.
This lack of knowledge can sometimes mean the difference between life and death. For example, the infant mortality rate has decreased exponentially since the early 20th century to purely anecdotal levels, largely due to vaccines. In many cultures they still celebrate 100 days from the birth of a baby because it was not uncommon for many to die before then, and in some tribes, children were not given a name until they were 8 years old for the same reason. It was not uncommon for our grandparents to have had siblings they never got to see grow up. And yet, in just two or three generations, we have forgotten that reaching adulthood is a privilege that has been achieved through science, and many movements have appeared, among them, for example, the anti-vaccine movements, which deny the scientific benefits and historical memory in pursuit of biased, if not outright false, claims.
In a world with all kinds of knowledge at the click of a button, it is essential to know who wants to broaden our horizons of knowledge and who wants to take advantage of our ignorance for profit. There are many scammers, charlatans, and talkers who introduce scientific jargon that they themselves do not even know what it means to convince people and sell their magical product. Even brilliant minds succumbed to pseudo-scientific therapies, such as Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple who, after being diagnosed with the only curable type of pancreatic cancer, refused for nine months to undergo surgery that would have basically saved his life. The best defense in this situation is knowledge and critical thinking. It simply takes reasoning, thinking and asking yourself, “Does what this person is saying make sense? Is it backed up by scientific studies and universities, or virtual entities created by themselves and their friends or accomplices? Who is going to make a profit if I am convinced?”
A very curious and illustrative story, for example, is that of the student Nathan Zöhner, who gathered petitions to ban DHMO as the basis of his science project. According to his studies, DHMO contributes to the greenhouse effect, is the main component of acid rain, contributes to erosion, accelerates corrosion and oxidation of many metals, can cause severe burns, and has been found in tumors. Even so, it is frequently used in industry and as a food additive, and there is no regulation. Given these facts, 86% of the participants signed up for a ban on DHMO. The plot twist came when Nathan revealed to the signatories that, in fact, the title of his project was “How gullible are we?” and that DHMO was nothing more than an acronym for dihydrogen monoxide, H2O, or what is commonly called water.
The journalist James K. Glassman coined the term Zöhnerism to refer to “the use of a true fact to lead a scientifically and mathematically ignorant public to a false conclusion”. This story, which may seem isolated, is nothing more than a demonstration of how the world works today. It is a practical example that perfectly illustrates how the masses can be convinced, how they can instill in us the opinion that a certain group is interested in, if we do not have a certain level of scientific culture, skepticism and critical thinking. Are they informing me or are they trying to convince me of something? Is the evidence they are offering me valid, or are they biased? Are they committing a fallacy in their argument? If you know what light is, it will be harder to fool you about evil electromagnetic radiation. If you know what quantum physics is, you’ll be more wary of scams that include such jargon in their descriptions, and if you know astronomy, you’ll get extra humor when you hear Han Solo say he traveled the Kessel Run in his Millennium Falcon in 12 parsecs in the original Star Wars trilogy.
Thus, the usefulness of knowledge is not only in practical and economic applications, but also serves to open a door to skepticism, to know how to create a reasoned opinion and not to stay with the unfounded vociferations of storytellers and charlatans. From here I invite the reader to help in the work of erasing islands of ignorance in the minds of people, motivate critical thinking and transmit the passion for science, research and the wonders of the world and the cosmos that surround us.
Dr. Algaba, originally from Spain, has worked as a researcher in Ireland, Taiwan, Korea, and is currently a Senior Lecturer in Universiti Malaya. He is a member of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), the team who has obtained the first images of two supermassive black holes, one in the galaxy M87, and another in the center of our own galaxy, the Milky Way.