What exactly is Science?

 How many events are happening around you as you are reading this post? can you list them all? certainly not. Our home planet earth has more events occurring on it than we can imagine. These events involve living organisms, inanimate structures; things that we can see, those which we can't. Events that amaze us and those which terrify us. The very formation of our earth was another massive event. These events bring with it a large number of questions that arise out of curiosity to explain or understand the world we live in i.e. the world around us.

If you have ever wondered what's going on? how 

these events take place? or why is it so? well, then you are not alone. These questions run in the minds of billions of people every second, every day. The answer to all these questions is simple and lies in one word.

                                                                           "SCIENCE"

Now your next question is What exactly is Science?

"Let me tell you my dear friends Science was never a question, Science is perhaps an Answer."

It is the knowledge we get when we ask questions  For Example, have you ever wondered why do all your belongings 

or anything that you throw up in the air, fall to the ground? the answer or science behind it is no big deal it's Gravity. However, Gravity is a pretty gigantic monster for those who are yet to be familiar with the term. So let me just give you a slight overview here, of course, we will learn gravity in detail, later on. As much we have been able to discover, gravity is still one of the many mysteries that scientists are still confused about as we shall see in upcoming projects. Anyway, You see the earth has an attraction to all objects, known as gravity & this invisible attraction is what keeps us on earth and not floats away in the air.

The funny thing is that. gravity was always there, since the beginning, but it was only 

understood and explained until not very long ago by a very inquisitive person who asked 

a lot of questions. 

He was very convinced, that an apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and that's because it fell on his head. That person was Sir Isaac Newton.

So gravity existed even before the apple fell on newtons head, but it was understood and 

explained only when newton decided to ask What, How & WHY.

So you see science involves you ..well not just you, me, and everything around us. 

But, we only understand it when we follow our curiosity and ask questions..a lot of questions and try to find answers to them.

But many times

, a question can have more than one answer. So, there is often more than one theory to explain the science behind each event. It's a lot like a maze. At the center is the event occurring and the questions related to it and the various paths to the center are the answers to it.

Based on our understanding of all events in the universe, we can classify science into 

three main branches: Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. That I will discuss in their specific sections. But for now, let's have a look at the two main categories of Science:

One is based on asking questions about the origin of what, how, and why things 

happen, as discussed earlier like Sir Isaac Newton. This is termed Basic Science, where you find crazy scientists experimenting in the laboratory like in the movies, the only thing is they are not crazy, at least on their official medical records, However, I personally am very concerned about their mental health. Basic science always follows a cycle: let's see what Basic Science is using the example of lime juice. The first step in the cycle involves asking questions about the origin of lime juice, for eg: what are the ingredients used to make lime juice, what can be used to dissolve lime juice ingredients and how much of those ingredients can be used? Could the lime juice do well to the body if consumed? The next step involves making an assumption or a hypothesis about the origin of lime juice. For Eg: We could use the juice of lemons to make lime juice, the lime juice may taste a lot better if we used sugar and salt. It could be that half a glass of water could be sufficient to dissolve all the ingredients. After we have made the assumptions, they need to be verified by experimenting - i.e we must try making the lime juice based on our assumptions and test to see what we assumed/ predicted is true or rather false. After performing the experiments successfully a conclusion is made where verified facts are established i.e in this case one can say that the lime juice is made only of juice extracted from lemons, it does indeed taste good with sugar and salt, that half a glass of water is sufficient to dissolve all the ingredients and that drinking lime juice does well to the body. Basic science always follows this cycle.

Let's move to the second category of Science that involves determining the various utilities 

of the now prepared lime juice. 

The answers might be making fruit juice concentrates, marinating fish before frying, curing indigestion, reducing blemishes on the skin. This category of science is called Applied science that simply looks at the various uses of what is already established.

Simply put, Basic science is concerned with knowing something and applied science is using 

what you know. 

Applied Science depends on Basic Science and vice versa. Well, so far we have seen that science can be all fun and games. So it's about time we ask the most important question of all, Is science always this good or does it also have a not-so-good side to it?

To understand that, let us look into some examples:

1) It can be used to make Nuclear power which 

can act as a substitute for electricity and which can be much cheaper or it can be made to make nuclear bombs which can have devastating effects,

2) Technology/pollution -the cellphone- Yes it is true that the advent of the portable 

phone also called the cell phone has made our lives a lot easier by allowing people over long distances to communicate more effectively and faster. But do the benefits really outweigh the risks that cellphones are likely to cause to our body like the high probability of brain tumors?

3) Genetic engineering/opposition: Though genetic engineering is concerned with trying 

to improve existing plants and animals in terms of obtained and derived products. It disturbs the natural ecosystem best suited for the original type of organisms.

The question here is not about science is good or bad. 

Because now we know science is knowledge. And knowledge is never bad per see. The real question we must ask ourselves before we utilize science should be are we using science for something good or something that will cause harm. Science has the power to both destroy and heal. But, it only depends on how you view it and more importantly, how you use it. We do have a choice! If science is pursued with a generous and compassionate heart, it can change our world in more ways than one.

The true potential of science is beyond our imagination. 

But then we can always start, by letting the scientist within ourselves, ask these three fundamental questions WHAT, HOW & WHY.