Question: What do you think the world would be like if there was no such thing as science?

Josh Makepeace answered on 19 Jun 2013:

Hi zoeann 🙂

That’s a hard thing to imagine for someone who does science everyday! I think everyone naturally does a bit of science every day. At its heart, science is about testing an idea using an experiment, and then trying to learn something about your idea afterwards! So whenever you try and learn to do something, like playing a sport or an instrument, you do that by trying things out and seeing if they work. So, without even trying, you’re doing science!!

But if we imagine a world where we didn’t spend any money on scientific research, I think it would be a very different place. For example, I certainly wouldn’t be able to be writing this to you right now!! It’s amazing to think about how much science affects our lives. From our phones, computers and tvs to the water that comes out the tap, the food we eat, the cars we drive and the clothes we wear, science has played a part in making those things happen. So I imagine that the world would be very different indeed, and we wouldn’t be able to do most of the things we take for granted.

Thanks for the question – I feel all happy about the role of science now 🙂