The document discusses the significance of science and technology in enhancing human understanding and life experiences. It highlights how science empowers individuals, facilitates access to information and global communication, and emphasizes the innate curiosity we possess from childhood. The narrative portrays science as an ongoing adventure that deepens our comprehension of the universe and ourselves.

1. SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: A BOON OR A BANE?
You. Yes, YOU. Look up. Look UP! What do you see? Well, chances are you see
lights. What else? Probably a ceiling fan if you aren’t blessed with an air conditioner,
that is. What was in your hand a few minutes ago? Yup, a cell phone. Great.
Now , let’s change our perspectives. Let’s say what you see above is science. The
thing that was in your hand some time ago, was in fact, SCIENCE. Makes good
sense.
But here’s the thing. The reason science is an indispensable ally runs deeper still.
Science actually assists our way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the
process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that’s precise,
predictive and reliable — a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience
it, that is empowering and emotional. To be able to think through and grasp
explanations — for everything from why the sky is blue to how everything is made
up of atoms — is one of the most precious of human experiences.
Science and technology go hand in hand; technology wouldn’t exist without
science and the opposite is also true. Without technology, we would not have
access to limitless amounts of information and knowledge that sources like the
internet provide us. We would not be able to easily communicate with people
across the world in seconds, and we would be unable to process international
transactions on a wide-scale. Technology strives towards the globalization of our
world. Without it, we would be more isolated and localized as a society.
As every parent knows, children begin life as uninhibited, unabashed explorers of
the unknown. From the time we can walk and talk, we want to know what things are
and how they work — we begin life as little scientists. But most of us quickly lose
our intrinsic scientific passion. Indeed, it’s a profound loss.

2. It’s one thing to go outside on a crisp, clear night and marvel at a sky full of stars. It’
s another to marvel not only at the spectacle but to recognize that those stars are
the result of exceedingly ordered conditions 13.7 billion years ago at the moment of
the Big Bang. It’s another still to understand how those stars act as nuclear furnaces
that supply the universe with carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, the raw material of life
as we know it.
And it’s yet another level of experience to realize that those stars account for less
than 4 percent of what’s out there — the rest being of an unknown composition,
so-called dark matter and energy, which researchers are now vigorously trying to
divine.
Science is the greatest of all adventure stories, one that ’ s been unfolding for
thousands of years as we have sought to understand ourselves and our
surroundings.
I would like to part with this profound quote of ex-President Mr. Barack Obama:
"[Science] is more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of
waves. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore and
engage with the world, and then have the capacity to change that world..."