"[Science] is more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of waves. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore and engage with the world, and then have the capacity to change that world..." ⇒ President Barack Obama, March 23, 2015
These remarks by President Obama at the White House Science Fair capture the essence of science and the scientific method. Engaging with our environment is critical to learning and understanding the universe. This method of exploring science is consistent with the Next Generation Science Standards and its focus on exploring various Phenomenon as described by the Wonders of Science. Science has been divided into two broad areas, the Physical Sciences and the Life Sciences. The two are intimately interrelated and are studied in an interdisciplinary manner. This division has occurred over time partially because of the need for humans to specialize and focus on selected phenomena. Over the next 30 years both the physical and life sciences will change rapidly as discoveries about ourselves and our environment continue to be made.
The Physical Sciences deal with all aspects of the inorganic universe, starting at the sub-atomic level, the very small, and extending to the very large at the scale of the Universe and possibly even the Multiverse. Traditionally subjects such as physics, chemistry, astronomy and the study of non-living aspects of our reality is included. The Life Sciences encompass the study of organic or living organisms, such as animals, plants, insects, microbes and possibly viruses, including their origin, growth and evolution. The laws of Physical science apply equally to the life sciences as the elements found in the physical sciences are the building block of life.
The size of the Universe is vast compared to human’s normal experience, starting at the very small and expanding to the very large. The following video entitled Powers of Ten give a visual presentation of its scale. Starting at 1-meter square (100) and extending out to 1025 and descending to the extremely small at 10-15 or 40 orders of magnitude. The Big Bang theory states the universe began some 13.8 billion years ago from a singularity. Cosmic Background Radiation has been detected that was left over from the Big Bang explosion that created the universe. The first half billion years was spent in a rapidly expanding, extremely dense hot plasma after which fundamental particles began to form. Later these fundamental particles coalesced into elements in the intense heat and pressure of stars. The lighter elements were built up in the interior of stars as hydrogen fused into helium and helium to lithium and up the periodic table to iron. Elements heavier than iron formed using a different process during the death of stars in supernovas.
Some 10 Billion years ago the Milky Way galaxy formed and later our solar system including the sun which formed some 4.5 Billion years ago. The earth moon system is formed even later some 3.5 billion years ago. The visible universe is continuing to expand today, with clusters of galaxies being pushed apart by what is called Dark Energy. Clusters of matter and energy are bound together by gravity into galaxies such as our own spiral galaxy, the Milky Way where our solar system and its planets including Earth is located. The visible universe is believed to consists of between 200 billion and 2 trillion of galaxies. Each of these galaxies contain billions of stars, that like our sun contain numerous planets.
The last twenty years has been one of discovery for NASA satellites, with over 3700 exoplanets being found by its Kepler Space Telescope which is now being replaced by the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). You can find a tally of some of the planets discovered by Kepler in this New York Times article. Of these, possibly as many as 100 are potentially habitable because they exist within the goldilocks zone. This is a distance between the planet and its star where the temperature allows liquid water to exist; not too hot and not too cold.
Our Astronomy page has links to other sites with lots of additional information about astronomy.
Of course, for humans the most important solar system and planet is our own Planet Earth. Although discussed as part of the physical sciences, there is an ongoing interaction between living organisms and the environment that host them; earth is no different. The Gaia Hypothesis state that living organisms interact with their inorganic environment to form a synergistic relationship.
Humans are soon likely to becoming a multi-planet species by establishing an outpost on Mars. Return trips to the moon and mining expeditions to the asteroid belt are also planned. Possibly one of the more advanced efforts to explore Mars is that led by Elon Musk a visionary technologist and entrepreneur through his company SpaceX. Mr. Musk expects to place humans on mars before the year 2030.
“a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution.” a working definition of life by NASA
“life is a relationship between a life form and its environment”.
The Life Sciences are among the most exciting areas of study today, and possibly one that will answer the age old question posed above of what is life. The reality is, we don’t have a precise definition of life, or for even what constitutes being alive. Animals, plants and microbial organisms are generally accepted as alive, and with the second definition above viruses could also be classified as alive.
Life science topics include a wide range of disciplines and vary from Agriculture to Zoology. Agriculture is possibly one of the more important areas of study and will be in most demand over the next 30 years as global population grows and arable land shrinks or becomes over cultivated. The need to supply the world’s population with enough food will be a continuing concern. Vertical farming is an interesting innovation for growing food in vertical structure which can be built in urban areas. Animal husbandry, the area of agriculture that is concerned with raising animals for food will also likely undergo substantial change. Concerns about methane emission’s contributions to global climate change has made cow farming a target in efforts to reduce emissions due to “bovine flatulence”.
The Medical Sciences are advancing rapidly with the aid of computing and artificial intelligence, areas such as genetic engineering and microbiology are advancing rapidly. Over the next few decades the life sciences will provide significant new understand not only about what life is but about life itself.
Medicine and medical technology, including Genetic Engineering, and immune-technology are among the most fascinating areas of scientific study today. These are some of the areas on the forefront of research today and provide fascinating opportunities for students planning their careers. Since mapping of the human genome concluded in 2003 significant progress has been made in genetic engineering and in understanding the role played by our DNA in both our development and disease.
Like the study of the human genome, today there is an effort to map the Human Microbiome Project (HMP). This project will identify the microbes that live on and within the human body and determine their role in human physiology. Only recently has humans as superorganism been recognized, as before 1990, microbes were not considered relevant. The human body consist of more than 100 trillion microbial cells, which is estimates to be 10 times as many microbial cell as human cells. These microbes are a key part of our digestive system where they break down and help us digest food. Experiments have shown that microbes play a significant role, not only in nutrition but also in health and immunity. Recent studies using fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) have proven effective in treating a variety of conditions including constipation, and colitis.
The human brain is another area of intense research. Both the United States and the European Union are funding significant research into how the Human brain operates. In the United States, The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative is headed by the National Institute of Health and is designed to understand the human brain. This project was started during the Obama Administration and was designed to parallel a similar initiative already underway in Europe. The Human Brain Project which has several related endeavors in the area of medicine, artificial intelligence, and computing. Another project being sponsored primarily by the Swiss government was designed to recreate a digital reconstruction of a mouse’s brain. Each of these are efforts to reverse engineer the brain and to develop technologies that will allow human like intelligence to be implemented in other systems.