Quote:
Originally Posted by Astrobserver99
I don't entirely agree..Science began to solve simple problems and most science is driven by the need to invent/manufacture something useful or solve some sort of problem...even more applicable today...and most science courses are aimed at this market. Pure theoretical science is mostly just that...
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That's engineering in it's pure form....science was never about inventing/manufacturing something. Science is about understanding why things work, why things are the way they are etc. It's not about wanting to build a better mousetrap. This obsession with wanting things and having a better mousetrap is a dysfunction of modern society. The reason why most science courses are aimed at the "practical" side of things is solely due to consumerism and the Western style of economic "progress". It has little to do with the acquisition of knowledge and without that acquisition of knowledge, your practical applications become nothing more than curious tinkering. For instance, if you had no idea about how electrons behave at microscopic scales in semiconductors (quantum physics), you'd never be able to build a functioning silicon chip, of any sort. If you didn't know about the spectrum of EMR, how would've they discovered X-rays??. Of what real, practical use was knowing about different wavelengths/frequencies of light...except to say light was made up of pretty coloured bits and pieces. Science always comes first, practical applications of that science
may come at some time later.
That's always been the case.