Scientists - What do you hope to achieve?

I am pursuing a degree in biochemistry as of right now and hope to do neurochemical research. I would love to find some physical links to that which we view as being outside of reality. I am also thinking of double majoring in environmental chemistry as I love nature and the environment and I feel strongly that I should use my chem knowledge to reduce pollution and waste. It also seems pretty obvious that there is a ton to learn in the field of chemistry.

How about you guys? Are there any scientists here? Why are you pursuing your degree and what do you hope to do with it?

 

Well im a physicist. Im a grad student at the moment im specialising in more fundamental physics, while its good to try and find out what the universe is made of eventually you have to concede that its time to scroll down to the philosophy and religion forums. Never the less its very interesting and I enjoy doing it even if it doesnt give all the answers though one day ill probably do something a little more useful alternative energies seems a good starting place right now.

 

Physics, wow...I couldn't do that. A kid in my o-chem class was triple majoring in physics, chem & math.

I would have to disagree, I think there is a lot in philosophy and religion that we can find out through science. I personally believe there is a stronger link between philosophy & religion and science than most people believe. Even if we're talking about heaven/hell, etc. it exists somewhere (e.g. it is real somewhere and can be found; I'm not saying heave & hell do exist).

Anyone else?

 

(this all ties in with Fat Tony's piece) Look into anesthesia. I have been reading some intersting stuff about consciousness and anesthesia on the web. Got my first insight on the Scitech daily review some time back. Bottom line is "they" don't know what consciousness is for sure and there is no agreement as to how some of the anesthesia agents do what they do...

There ya go, I got chemistry, biophysics, and a bit of philosophy all in one post

 

I dont think science will ever couple into any spiritual side to the universe. At least not in Physics there may be a separate discipline emerge, well I guess thats what we call faith.

 

google anesthesia consciouness...

 

i think the moment when we find important links between science spirituality philosophy and religion will be a new scientific revolution

 

It is true that we dont know to what extent consciousness is physical. If it turns out that consciousness is a totally physical phenomenon and then yes one day all these currently unexplained phenomenon will just be categorized as various biochemical effects that we dont currently understand. This may well come when computers become more powerful and a total model of the brain is available.

However most religious philosophies and many of the new agey things take the spirit or soul as being separate to the body. In this case there will not be a link simply because physics studies that natural world, if the soul exists elsewhere then it is not covered by physics. Heaven/Hell, the spirit etc exist beyond the universe in Judeao-Christian-Islam religion.

 

Make the world a better place.

 

I am currently a senior double majoring in chemistry and biochemistry, plan to go to graduate school and earn a Phd but more importantly learn everything I possibly can about my specific field so that I will be good at what I do. Its all very interesting to me, learning how everything works and seeing how physical law has lead to everything being as it is. I just feel excited about being a part of the effort of humankind to further our understanding of ourselves and our world and thus help better our quality of life and our world. I almost feel like it is my duty, I would feel pretty guilty if i went through my life and didn't at least try to contribute to making the world a better place. Regardless of whether I succeed and help save lives or don't make any new discoveries I still will feel like I did what I could to contribute to the betterment (if thats a word) of mankind.

 

I'm a researcher working on improving the welfare of farm animals. Of course if I don't get on the tenure track soon I'll end up being a clerk or something instead. Most science careers are low paid and unreliable.

 

i am currently working on how to keep P&J sandwiches from going soggy.......and possibly working it into a floor polish....

 

We should get together and get a government grant for this...I'm tired of trying to make money the honest way...it never did any good anyway!

 

I am going for a degree in ecology. I plan on going for a masters degree in plant ecology next fall. I have not been able to decide where I would like to go though. I suppose I am most interested in studying plant interactions at the community level, and I hope to learn as much as I can about these interactions. I hope what will be learned can be applied to habitat conservation, and help to better understand other interactions.