Science is a process, a methodology. It is not a laboratory, a sample, or a piece of equipment. To do science is to be rigorous, exacting, and detail oriented. Your standards have to be impossibly high. You must be almost maniacal in your pursuit of truth. In your field, pedantry is a virtue.
Even if you are not a scientist by profession, we should all have a bit of that scientific impulse. We all need to know true things about the world in which we live. Some things are so important, we simply have to know them. The epistemology we use to know what we know is the practical outworking of science.
That said, while science is not the equipment, we cannot do science without tools. To end up with results we trust, we have to use tools we can trust. This is one of the things that separates the amateur from the professional scientist. Before we can do science on a proposition, we have to do it on the equipment we will be using to obtain a result we can trust. Here's why:
We Are in a Fight for Our Lives
Garbage in, garbage out applies to everything, If you take a picture of something to see if minuscule specks exist on that sample, your results will be no good if your lens is dirty. You will have a hard time differentiating between the specks in your sample and the specks from your lens.
When you do realize your equipment has become unreliable for whatever reason, You need to have it repaired or replaced. Companies like Excedr supply that much needed reliability when your equipment ceases to do so. Everything needs to be covered in case of show-stopping issues. It is vitally important your lab has a way to lease equipment to keep those experiments moving forward.
Biotech companies in San Diego and around the world are doing mission critical research to find a cure to the coronavirus and deadly variants. This is a fight we are in for the long haul. We are making great progress but no one is even close to declaring victory. What is happening in biotech labs worldwide is no longer a matter of private enterprise. It is an existential reality for all humankind. It is not just the scientists in the labs. We all have to be absolutely confident in the results coming from those labs. It is not hyperbole to declare equipment reliability a matter of life and death.
We Are Discovering Our Place in the universe
Are we alone in the universe? Are we as unique as we once believed? Even if we are, might there be conditions in other parts of the universe favorable to producing and sustaining our form of life? These are the kinds of questions on which the latest unmanned Mars mission could shed some light.
Right now, private companies are still having difficulties with spacecraft reliability. If we are going to establish our place in the universe, we have to be able to fully trust the equipment charged with getting off this particular rock. Anytime we send people into space, we hold our breath and hope for the best while fearing the worst. Before we can significantly advance, sending people into space has to be as reliable as going to work in an automobile.
Our Children Will Inherit This World
Science needs to take a more prominent role in our lives because it informs our treatment of the planet we are leaving to our children. We need access to the best scientific data we can get. Good science eliminates the human equation to the degree possible. We need science-based data to make science-based decisions. Emotional decisions will not serve our children well. If we are not a lot more careful, they will inherit a bigger mess than the next ten generations can handle.
We absolutely have to trust the lab equipment that gives us a fighting chance against viruses. We have to trust the equipment that takes us up, up, and away. And we have to trust the equipment that we rely on to make better and more sustainable decisions that safeguard the planet for generations to come.
