08/07/2020

In a column in Folha, Viana discusses the value of science.

Foto: Divulgação Instituto Butantan

Reproduction of Marcelo Viana's column in Folha de S.Paulo.

“Thought is a mere flash of lightning in the midst of a long night, but that flash of lightning is everything,” wrote Henri Poincaré in his book “The Value of Science,” published in 1905. This Wednesday, July 8th, is National Science and Researcher Day, and it is important to reflect on the importance of scientific research in our time. This column is part of the #ScientistAtWork campaign, which celebrates science throughout the month in opinion pieces.

Throughout history, humanity has questioned the world around it and its place in it. The first answers came from myths. The Sumerians, who inaugurated history, believed that the goddess Nammu, the primordial ocean, created An, the sky, and Ki, the earth. From their union was born Enlil, the air, who created Nanna, the moon, who in turn gave birth to humans and animals to serve her.

All human cultures have developed supernatural cosmologies, with clear explanations for our existence and, undoubtedly, necessary comfort in the face of the tragedies to which we are subject. But they do not explain how to change our relationship with what surrounds us, in order to avoid such tragedies.

When, during his famous voyage on the Beagle from 1831 to 1836, the British naturalist Charles Darwin confronted the remarkable richness of nature and the surprising similarities and differences between living species and fossil remains, he did not seek explanation in the inscrutable creativity of the goddess Nanna. He appealed to the observation of facts, and their explanation by means accessible to the human mind.

Some of his proposals were speculative at the time and would only be justified by advances in genetics, culminating in 1953 with the discovery of the DNA double helix by Crick, Watson, Franklin, Gosling, and other scientists. These advances were crucial in generating the extraordinary power of modern medicine in combating countless diseases. Without them, we would be defenseless against Covid-19 and so many other problems that still plague humanity.

To read the full text, visit the newspaper's website.