The Recurring Problem with Understanding Science

[MineralMan]

6. Yes, absolutely.

I've been a science geek since I was a little kid. I didn't make a career of it, but I've never stopped learning. You're right. Without a fundamental understanding of whatever science interests you, you won't have enough foundational knowledge to read current publications. If you're not intensely interested in a subject, you won't bother.

I recognize that most people just aren't that interested in any of the sciences. It's just not their thing. I am interested, though, and always have been. I can read the journals, and do, in areas of interest to me. In current physics, I can no longer follow the math, but I can work around that, and simply assume that they got that part right. In medicine, that's not a problem, really, and that's a field I stay current in as well. I'm a cosmology buff, too, and that's among the most interesting fields of all. Again, the math has gone way beyond what I truly understand, but I can work around that, too.

I don't expect people to have the same interest I do in the sciences. I know they don't.