Understanding Earth's Age

Eric Enriquez DS August 17, 2009

Dr. Lansing History of Science

I suppose that in the past leisure time was associated with doing science and other forms of scholarship because people in the past conducted science because of their curiosity, not because that’s the career they wanted to fallow. So they did it in their spare time. As we see in the history of science most famous scientist had day-time jobs that didn’t involve science at all; they only conducted science in their spare time. Maybe it could have been because scientist in that day weren’t getting a good enough salary or because to get paid for being a scientist you need to make an important discovery. So if you wanted to get paid frequently, to pay for daily necessities, you needed to discover new things very often and making new discoveries takes time, patience, and a lot of hard work. That’s why scientist who made a living out of science were people who made frequent discoveries like Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein. And even the most successful scientist didn’t live entirely out of science and often started with different career choices.

Today, very few people spend time conducting science because a modern day scientist is viewed as a geek, nerd, or dork. Scientist no longer posses the respect they once did in countries that thrived on new ideas and discoveries, like Ancient Greece. They are not viewed as people who make life easier and technology possible; they are viewed as freaks who spend their entire lives reading and not enjoying life. Scientist are common where science is treasured, education is valued, and scientist are respected and viewed as heroes. The best modern example is Japan, and unfortunately the best example for where it doesn’t occur is the U.S.A.