Which science has best served humanity? (title fixed)

ChocolateSauce

I'd say biology. Yes, chemistry is critical to drug development, but without knowledge of biology it would be shooting in the dark.

Pgibson

theozster wrote: »

I'd say biology.

Biology needs Microscopes which came from Physics as explained in this poem:

The Microscope
by Maxine Kumin

Anton Leeuwenhoek was Dutch.
He sold pincushions, cloth, and such.
The waiting townsfolk fumed and fussed
As Anton’s dry goods gathered dust.
He worked, instead of tending store,
At grinding special lenses for
A microscope. Some of the things
He looked at were: mosquitoes’ wings,
the hairs of sheep, the legs of lice,
the skin of people, dogs, and mice;
ox eyes, spiders’ spinning gear,
fishes’ scales, a little smear
of his own blood, and best of all,
the unknown, busy, very small
bugs that swim and bump and hop
inside a simple water drop.

Impossible! Most Dutchmen said.
This Anton’s crazy in the head!
We ought to ship him off to Spain!
He says he’s seen a housefly’s brain!
He says the water that we drink
Is full of bugs! He’s mad, we think!
They called him dumkopf, which means dope.
That’s how we got the microscope.

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eZe^

When we start making more efficient nuclear fusion reactors, ones that can be used to commercially make energy for our homes, lets see which science wins this argument... :pac:

a5y

Villager:
"If... she... weighs... the same as a duck,... she's made of wood."

Bedevere:
"And therefore?"

Villager:
"A witch!"

The scientific method. Need I say more?

lemd

I'll say physics, it allowed us to create homes where we wanted (as opposed to caves where they existed), weapons for hunting right up to computers, internet and the LHC. But then again i'm an engineer and therefore a bit biased.

Pgibson

lemd wrote: »

I'll say physics, it allowed us to create homes where we wanted (as opposed to caves where they existed), weapons for hunting right up to computers, internet and the LHC. But then again i'm an engineer and therefore a bit biased.

It was biology which made engineers...so biology came first.

Biological systems are trillions of times more "advanced" that mere engineering systems.

(The ongoing battle against cancer and HIV etc. show up the awesome complexity of even "simple" biological systems.)

A single molecule of DNA made the body.. and the brain... of Einstein.

Biological science has saved many more lives than even military engineers have killed.

Penicillin etc. has saved hundreds of millions of lives.


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eZe^

Pgibson wrote: »

It was biology which made engineers...so biology came first.

Biological systems are trillions of times more "advanced" that mere engineering systems.

(The ongoing battle against cancer and HIV etc. show up the awesome complexity of even "simple" biological systems.)

A single molecule of DNA made the body.. and the brain... of Einstein.

Biological science has saved many more lives than even military engineers have killed.

Penicillin etc. has saved hundreds of millions of lives.


.

Oh yes, and how did we discover D.N.A again????

Pgibson

eZe^ wrote: »

Oh yes, and how did we discover D.N.A again????

Crick and Watson used their......BRAINS.

.

moggins7

Pgibson wrote: »

It was biology which made engineers...so biology came first.

Biological systems are trillions of times more "advanced" that mere engineering systems.

(The ongoing battle against cancer and HIV etc. show up the awesome complexity of even "simple" biological systems.)

A single molecule of DNA made the body.. and the brain... of Einstein.

Biological science has saved many more lives than even military engineers have killed.

Penicillin etc. has saved hundreds of millions of lives.


.

HA!

it was man that made engineers. the brain has jus been nurtured in such a way over the years that that person grew into a engineer/physicist/(every other job title there is)

so you've watched a bacteria/ virus for a couple of decades. how exactly, oh wait i know. microscopes. and the data has been recorded on... oh wait computers, and has been sent over the internet and been published...
oh cand the drugs that go towards battling these viruses have been created by biologists chemists yes?

sorry this might be hard to cope with but biology is WAY down the pecking order when it comes to the greatest science to serve humanity...

physicists are even taking over your field by studying the brain and seeing how it works and how people can be helped...

(and i don't mean to sound like an arsehole but hey wat ya gonna do)

Pgibson

moggins7 wrote: »

HA!

it was man that made engineers. the brain has jus been nurtured in such a way over the years that that person grew into a engineer/physicist/(every other job title there is)

so you've watched a bacteria/ virus for a couple of decades. how exactly, oh wait i know. microscopes. and the data has been recorded on... oh wait computers, and has been sent over the internet and been published...
oh cand the drugs that go towards battling these viruses have been created by biologists chemists yes?

sorry this might be hard to cope with but biology is WAY down the pecking order when it comes to the greatest science to serve humanity...

physicists are even taking over your field by studying the brain and seeing how it works and how people can be helped...

(and i don't mean to sound like an arsehole but hey wat ya gonna do)

Don't understand your lingo Moggins7......

Is that a dialect of Swahili you are using?

Outer Mongolian perhaps?

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r3nu4l

Let's try and keep things civil around here!

Okay, so far the results of this thread have pretty much confirmed my own beliefs.

1) All sciences are dependent on one another to grow and survive.
2) Put two scientists in a room and ask them to come to a consensus on any issue and they will just find more points to disagree on

Pgibson

r3nu4l wrote: »

Put two scientists in a room and ask them to come to a consensus on any issue and they will just find more points to disagree on

That's ECONOMISTS you are talking about.

There is remarkable consensus amongst scientists.

Disagreements are usually minor in the extreme,about points of detail..and amicable.

(Astronomy has indeed a few hold-outs against the Big Bang theory, but very very few.Biology has NO objectors to the Theory of Evolution.)

Science is DATA driven..not OPINION driven after all.


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Mucco

Pgibson wrote: »

Famous quotation:
"Physics is the only real science. The rest of the sciences are just stamp collecting."
-- Ernest Rutherford.

Didn't he win the 1908 Nobel prize for stamp collecting?

r3nu4l

Pgibson wrote: »

That's ECONOMISTS you are talking about.

There is remarkable consensus amongst scientists.

Disagreements are usually minor in the extreme,about points of detail..and amicable.

(Astronomy has indeed a few hold-outs against the Big Bang theory, but very very few.Biology has NO objectors to the Theory of Evolution.)

Science is DATA driven..not OPINION driven after all.


.

Are you sure you are a scientist??? Ask Professor A and Professor B working in immunology as to the best way to design an ELISA and they will both give you different answers regarding the optimal molarity and type of salt to be used in the buffer. They will argue over whether distilled or deioninsed water is best, They will then inevitable tear each others throats out while explaining why their opinion is most important and at the same time hand you a grant application to prove their idea... That's what I'm talking about. The big theories? Sure there is agreement...but the devil is in the detail and that's where us scientists love to disagree

Pgibson

r3nu4l wrote: »

Are you sure you are a scientist??? Ask Professor A and Professor B working in immunology as to the best way to design an ELISA and they will both give you different answers regarding the optimal molarity and type of salt to be used in the buffer. They will argue over whether distilled or deioninsed water is best, They will then inevitable tear each others throats out while explaining why their opinion is most important and at the same time hand you a grant application to prove their idea... That's what I'm talking about. The big theories? Sure there is agreement...but the devil is in the detail and that's where us scientists love to disagree

Those are MINOR details which eventually come out in the wash.

Usually BOTH methods have merit in such circumstances.

One or both methods will prove to be effective once the experiments are done.

Not BIG questions at all.

(More than one way to skin a cat.)

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0utpost31

Geologee! Without it you wouldn't have fuel....

kevmy

Physics. I would say Maths but in my opinion it's not a true science. It's too pure and involves no experimentation. It is only a tool of science.

As for the post regarding biology being better because it made the brains that made the physicist. If you want to go that route what made the biology which made the brains? I think you will find it all comes down to the big bang which is firmly in the physics camp.

As for how physics has benefited humanity most it's because it bridges the divide between the theoretical and the applied, it makes all the others possible and provides the tools for doing so while also providing plenty of end product itself.
Physicists are more likely to cross over to other disciplines than the other way around. Physics explains the fundamental like gravity without which understanding we would go nowhere. It goes from the large (Theory of Everything) to the minuscule (quantum theory) - which curiously enough are essentially the same thing - and still gives ultimate end product like the semiconductor, the microscope, the mobile phone, the power generation, the list goes on.

The only one which comes near imo is biology but it loses out due to it's limitations in scope compared to Physics

napapa

I look at physics as the rule book of life...using these rules one can create almost (why can't i get this damn wittig to work) anything...:D

Its a chemical romance...

Gaspode

What does the op mean by which science? Surely science is a way of thinking about the world, and the designations (biology, physics, chemistry, ets) argued over so far are just the different areas scientists are thinking about?

r3nu4l

deswalsh wrote: »

What does the op mean by which science? Surely science is a way of thinking about the world, and the designations (biology, physics, chemistry, ets) argued over so far are just the different areas scientists are thinking about?

Bingo Give the man a prize (so long as it's not from my wallet...credit crunch dontyaknow?)

Yep, to be honest, there is such an intermingling now in the sciences that it's difficult to say that any one science has been more important than another.

Of course, that's just my opinion...

gondorff

Solid State electronic switching.

Capt'n Midnight

Flush toilet is up there , but that's more engineering.
Bacteriology but most of the improvements in fresh water supply were figured out before they ID'd all the organisms involved.

gondorff wrote: »

Solid State electronic switching.

can't help feeling that we would have eventually made much smaller vacuum devices , using similar photoreduction techniques , so small that they would operate at much lower voltages, possibly without needing filaments.

Astronomy/Cosmology has had massive effects on religion indirectly by answering a lot of the basic questions.

Which science has best served humanity? hamburgerology :pac:

elpresdentde

agriculture

Svenolsen

seamus wrote: »

Mathematics > all.

AAAND........Mathematics is just applied LOGIC.

The End....


.

Scarinae

Geology is actually quite useful... Hydrocarbon extraction provides us with fuel, plastics, and deodorant (if that's not serving humanity, I don't know what is!) Mineral extraction provides us with metals such as iron and zinc, gemstones such as diamonds, as well as silica, sulphur, pumice etc. Hydrogeology overlaps with engineering and can be used to supply water in arid regions, saving lives. Also, geological principles are used in civil engineering for construction - makes our tunnels and bridges safe! And don't forget that most of the data about past climates come from boreholes that are analysed by geologists, making us important in the study of global climate change.

Bryan Habana

Medical and biological sciences for me. Improving quality of life for those with debilitating illnesses, life-saving surgeries etc.