Most helpfull to ALL life forms science?

[cameron marical]

I want to hear some opinions on what was the most helpfull area of science for life in general,{not only humans},there is. What do you guys think it is?

[CaptainPanic]

The (bio)chemical engineer is the inventor of beer.

 

But chemistry as a whole made life, if you believe in the Primordial soup theory.

[cameron marical]

I do believe in the primordial soup theory.

 

So are you saying that chemistry would be a great aspect of science to get into for the betterment of life in general? Interesting, i wouldnt have guessed that, I Thought that chemistry was just recording data people found out ages ago and using it for various things that are already around, like making better fuels and stuff. Chemistry is quite interesting, and i love the aspect of it being much memorizing, Im quite good at that.

 

The reason why i would like to know others opinions is because im still deciding what part of science to specialize in, and quite frankly, i love it all, but i can not reaserch it all regretably, so i must choose, and i choose by which would be the most helpfull to life.

 

thanks for the replys.

[crazybrain68]

You should work in whatever area interests you the most, not necessarily what area will help the most people. In pretty much all science your research will aid people, either directly or indirectly. Since you are still in high school I would take a variety of science classes and use those to judge what interests you the most.

[cameron marical]

I like it all...

 

Is their like a universal scientist that works on many different aspects of science?

 

Can i just go through multiple classes in college and specialize in multiple areas of sience?

[crazybrain68]

You could do that, you would just have a multiple major (ie a double major in biology and chemistry),which can be a difficult path to take. However I am sure that with the more science classes you take you are going to find that one area interests you more than the others. If you are worried about limiting yourself to much, just remember that many teams of scientists are interdisciplinary. For example my advisor is a molecular biologist but regularly works with chemists and physicists.

[bascule]

Biology, because that's the only way humans can understand other lifeforms well enough to help them, and also knowledge from biology is used by the medical sciences as well, so it benefits both doctors and veterinarians.

[cameron marical]

Ill meet you both half way and say that biochemistry is a big one ill start reaserching right now. I was thinking that same thing, biology is the study of life, so it could be the most helpfull to it too, but then again chemistry and physics have contributed to alot of life help too, i think ill just learn alot of it all and stop worriying about labels for what ill do, and just do it.

 

thanks guys.

[crazybrain68]

A lot of this is opinion based, a chemist will say chemistry is the most important, a physicist will say physics and a biologist will say biology. What it comes down to is what area you like the MOST out of all science.

[Mr Skeptic]

Most important to all life? I think that science in general is actually harmful to most life in the short term -- not of itself, but because we largely use it to give us humans an advantage over other life. Biology, ecology, and medicine may be exceptions.

 

In the long term, physics will become the most important to all life. We're probably the only life forms considering what will happen to Earth when the sun goes red giant. Without advanced technology a billion years from now, I'm pretty sure that all life on earth will be toast -- literally.

[cameron marical]

Ive made my decision. I started off when i first came to science at physics, that was my area of main interest and i thought almost exactly as what mr. skeptic said, that all science was helpfull, but most helped individuals, while physics helps civilizations. that may be flawed, but anyway. I then later got tired of only physics and moved to engineering and teeter totted them for a while till i migrated to biology, now ive kind of touched chemistry, though know barely anything of the topic. Im now kind of everywhere.

 

What i want to do is major in physics but also take classes in other science classes as well, and maybe major in them also.

 

thanks for your guys help!

[GDG]

Discoveries of huge importance can come from just about any field. Without physics, we wouldn't have microchips, or MRI scanners (just for example). Without chemistry, we wouldn't have pharmaceuticals or plastics. Without biology, we wouldn't have modern agriculture or pharmaceuticals (sometimes takes more than one field).

 

I suspect that there will be great demand for environmental sciences and bioinformatics over the next few decades. The former because the population has an ever-increasing appreciation for how badly we've trashed the planet, and the need to cure some of that (and/or predict what happens next, and prepare for it). Bioinformatics because genomic information is being collected at a torrential rate, but the tools for analyzing the data and figuring out what is significant still need work. We could all do nothing but mine data for years to come.

 

But I have to echo the prior comments: do what interests you most. You are most likely to make an important contribution if you are doing something that really interests you. At the same time, read broadly, so that you are at least aware of what is going on in other fields. If your library carries the journals Science or Nature, try reading all of the articles (not just the ones in your field). If your library doesn't carry them, at least listen to their podcasts. The story I was told about the invention of NMR was that some atomic physicists were studying the interaction of hydrogen atoms with a radio-frequency source. They would use chemicals like benzene (C6H6) or ethane (C2H6), and find the resonant frequency. However, they kept getting a different resonant frequency for each different compound. Some compounds, instead of giving a nice sharp, single peak, gave them a forest of peaks. They were not interested at all in the "chemical shift" -- but the chemist next door was...

 

Finally, whether you like it or not, learn to write well. The more effectively you can communicate, the more effective you will be in everything else.