MILES AWAY GEARING TO OPTIMUM BREAKTHROUGH

JOANE ESCOTO-FERNANDO

The first scientist of the world was a prehistoric man. He used his brain to invent the simplest device to make his life less painful. Science started its humble journey from that day and grew richer and richer and it has reached its golden age today. It has revolutionized man’s life so thoroughly that we like to call this age the age of science. Science has been a mixed package to man. If used properly, science is helpful. If abused, science may become a threat to humanity.

Every person feels the effects of science in every sphere of life. It is not merely the electric light or the electric fan, the radio or the cinema that displays the power of science in our daily life, but everything we do or is done to us is in some way or another connected with science. Science has minimized our hardships and has increased pleasures and comfort. Now it cures our maladies, bridges gulfs and brings convenience and lifts up the veil of nature’s mystery. The quick means of travel has made the world a very small place to live in. The computer, the greatest gift of the 20th century, has relieved man from manual and mental labor to a great extent. It is, indeed, true that science has added tremendously to the comforts and conveniences of man kind. Unless one is an ascetic, one has no reason to reject the things science offers.

Yet, there is another side of the picture too. What science gives by one hand is taken away by another. For example, the invention of machinery and large scale production has resulted in insanitary living conditions, unfair distribution of wealth, strikes and unemployment. Science has not only invented a robot, but has turned a man into a robot in some cases. Satellites are widely used for espionage purposes. Science, at the same time, has given sophisticated and frightful nuclear weapons that may abolish the whole mankind from this planet.

Science has, beyond doubt, eased the life of human beings. It has proved to be a great boon in the development process of culture and society and has definitely conquered human minds. With this, even the first prehistoric scientist will no longer cling to the transmission of messages, knowledge, wisdom from one valley to another and from mountain to another mountain and surely will embrace the amazing breakthrough of science.

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The author is SST III at Pulung Santol National High School