What is that word? I made it up. It’s a mix of science + enthusiast. I have to be careful though. I’m NOT a scientist. I’m enthusiastic about science. So it’s what I’m going to start calling myself.
Yes, I’m a scienthusiast.
I guess it could be hyphenated sci-enthusiast? Maybe scien-thusiast? Either way, I looked around Google briefly and it’s possible I thought of this before billions of other people? Maybe it’s some horrible word that I shouldn’t use? Nah, it’s great! It describes me quite fittingly, I think.
So there, it’s my word. It’s OK, you can borrow it. I expect royalties though!
What to do with it? Well, I think the world needs more enthusiasm for science. Not to solve every lurking problem in our lives but to better understand how the world around us works. Some mysteries shall remain so. There are some exceedingly complex things in the Universe that aren’t really practical for everyone to know. Unless it’s your job to know them, that is.
So, perhaps one of my goals in life is to help spread the word of science; Turn people on to how it all works, at a fundamental level. It always goes back to a quote from Carl Sagan. Roughly, we live in a world filled with technology. So few people understand how it all works. You don’t have to be a scientist to understand. You simply have to open your mind to it. When people learn how things actually work, it’s usually one of those “wow…” moments.
In saying that, remember, we can’t let go of reason for madness. There was a time when people who studied the heavens feared retribution. Good people were arrested, exiled or even killed for observing something knowable versus believing in something we couldn’t know. It might seem insane to think that could happen again, but remember as a species, we’re very young. There are a lot of good and honest people out there that speak for science.
Science is interesting because it changes based on observation. In that sense, our view of the world has evolved, as our methods and tools have evolved. The next few decades should prove to be very exciting in the realm of understanding. How the forefathers of great thinkers should like to be alive today to have a glimpse at what we know. How the great thinkers of our future might look back and realize how primitive our thinking was. Each new generation stands on the shoulders of giants from the previous.
Life; space; time; the Cosmos; all encompassing and all waiting to be discovered and understood. We are, in a way, how the Universe understands itself.
We, as the human race, must keep it going. If we’re not to be scientists, we should at least be enthusiastic about science.
Enter: The Scienthusiast.