Nature's Mysteries Quotes
Sir Humphry was a religious man, and yet he focused on one of the great differences between science and religion. The latter is presumed true and eternal by its faithful, while science is never such. No truth is eternal in science and rarely does a scientific “truth” last 100 years without modification, elaboration or additional complexity. This is one of the reasons that scientists make poor witnesses at Congressional hearings. They are never certain of anything if they are good scientists. Witnesses from other fields testify with much more certainty as they are motivated by self interest or ideology where doubt is unacceptable.
Most of the greatest scientific breakthroughs were motivated by a search for the truth, a desire to understand the world, and the joy of discovery, not utility. None the less, the results have had profound usefulness to humanity in most cases. After this basic research, there are other people who then specifically work to apply the basic research to improvement in the human condition. That is applied research. Each important basic research breakthrough spawns a host of applications that are then developed.
