Science Vs Humanities At A-level I am studying English, History, Religious Studies and, begrudgingly, Geology. I would have liked to have studied another creative or human-based subject instead of geology. Art, music or drama if I had the talent; a language if the French teachers in my school weren’t evil witches (and I promise whoever shows them this will receive my recently fluffed quiff to the face); film studies if my timetable allowed it; creative writing or journalism if they existed. Why? Geology just doesn’t do it for me. Yes, with a moderate amount of smugness, I got the highest mark in my class. However I’m a) rarely confident and b) never interested. I cannot see the appeal in finding out when a rock was (possibly) formed. You go through this mile-long list of tasks, and then all you know is a piece of information that will help you in no way, whatsoever. This, to me, seems like the epitome of many scientific endeavours. Think, for a minute, of some of those wacky Facts you read on Twitter from such sites as @UberFacts who has just informed me that “girls go through puberty at a younger age if their father isn’t present”, and that “only 1/10 mature couples still respond to their partner with the same intensity as those in the first stages of love.” I was also just reading about a Nobel prize-winning experiment that aimed to, and did, measure the exact distance that Chinstrap Penguins can fire their poo: 40cm, according to their conclusion. Also in their conclusion was the observation that “Whether the bird deliberately chooses the direction into which it decides to expel its faeces or whether this depends on the direction from which the wind blows at the time of evacuation are questions that need to be addressed on another expedition to Antarctica.” Whoever wrote out this #quote clearly needs to learn to use that most complicated of grammatical features, the comma. But that’s beside the point. As you can see, from three examples that took me all of three minutes to find, science generates some bloody pointless results. And it’s not even as though they found that a certain combination of chemicals don’t create the cure for cancer, failing, and moved on to another method. No, they went into these experiments, like with my recently completed geology coursework, knowing that they would come off no better should their hypothesis be proven true or radically false. So why do it? Surely these scientists, who more than likely have degrees in neurosciences, nanosciences and probably just as many arguably not-sciences, would be better utilised developing, perhaps, a cure to Alzheimer’s or some crop that grows two new fruits for every one chopped off. It seems in my humble opinion to be because there are too many scientists. While on their way up the ladder, there should be less important but similarly useful products to develop and experiments to do. Instead, I can only assume that every possible avenue is being explored by a top scientist already, and so the students and younger, lowlier scientists, who may well have much more revolutionary ideas than the decrepit oldies working on flu jabs and what not, have absolutely no chance of working on anything of use, thus forced into an inane, unnecessary job. And I believe most of them don’t realise or care. The crazy penguin guy obviously had a genuine belief in, and curiosity for, what he was researching. And somehow, inexplicably, so did the people awarding the Nobel prizes. I’m going to go as far as to say this is a direr situation than the money-grabbing scientists. It is a fairly well-known problem with medical science/development, as A-level RS has taught me, that medicines are developed for the sake of developing them. By re-releasing an almost identical pill, a company can up its income. “OH MY GOD!!! EVERYONE’S GOING TO DIE!!!” Why? If the money just goes back into science, eventually it’ll make its way to an experiment of more use. However with the apparent abundance of scientists of late, these frankly ridiculous experiments literally just throw money away. I can’t begin to guess how large a sum is needed to send a team to Antarctica (or to supply the drugs those guys must have been taking), but I do know that their money went nowhere. As an industry – which it is – science lost a few thousand Great British Pounds, all to find out exactly how far a certain breed of penguin squirts their shit. In essence, they paid money and the time of some talented men and women for that Fact, that is just that: a Fact. A few words that will make a person at a party grunt with perfunctory laughter once in a while. It’s like they paid all that for a bad joke you would find in a cracker. So in conclusion, while the necessary, needed products of science are very useful, if not vital, to say the least, the unnecessary, unneeded products are utter hogwash (my thesaurus came in handy there). This seems like an ideal time to bring up my next, and in foresight, probably just as long-winded point. Creativity, and more broadly the study of humanities, is vastly superior in my opinion. For one, it is so firmly based in the world of Man (and Woman for anyone calling me sexist). If you are learning maths, biology, chemistry, etc. at A-level, then, unless they are drastically different to GCSE, I imagine you learn a minute amount of any substance; of any relevance to real, human #life. In chemistry, do you ever learn about how a king once beheaded every human with green eyes and why? In maths, do you ever hear tell of the works of the most creative literary minds ever to grace this world? In biology, do you ever read up on the ponderings of the greatest minds currently gracing this world? No. You don’t. You learn how stuff happens, not why. You likely learn incomprehensible Facts that, like the penguin poo one, will cause at best a reasonably surprised feeling, and if you’re really lucky, a period (wait for it, dirty boy/girl!) of reflection. At worst, would be the aforementioned forced laugh and instant unconscious disposal of the Fact. Other than the useful knowledge, science holds very little appeal to me. And I suppose that is what this article is about: the unnecessary Facts of science versus the unnecessary Facts of humanities. If you’re finding yourself a tad befuddled at my meaning, what I mean is this. There is some knowledge from both branches that it is virtually essential to know. Things like how to live a healthy #lifestyle, in science. Similarly, creating products from medicines to cars all require a scientific knowledge that I neither have nor deny. Likewise, the humanities have some fairly need-to-know information. For instance, how to read, write and speak (the latter is bound to cause some argument as to its place, but it certainly is more of a human creation than one of nature). Also, events that help us learn. Did George Santayana not say “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it”? If we ignored the numerous wars and ways of the past, we would be somewhere entirely different right now. However the “pointless” creations of the humanities are a little less pointless than you may suspect. Whereas these unnecessary scientific Facts (a name I seem to have unofficially christened them with) have no bearing on our lives, the creations of the human mind and world, admittedly not as true as those created by science, have a much greater effect than their opponent. The creations I speak of are creative endeavours: song, dance, poetry, fiction, film, theatre and art. While science creates stinking piles of codswallop and other, less polite terms, the humanities generate these… things, for want of a less broad term, that, though worthless in terms of survival (e.g. they cannot give us food, water, etc.), are what being human is all about – fun. It’s been by my belief for a time that fun, another broad term at the best of times, is the aim in #life. Other than desperately poor peoples who are striving for survival, can you think of anyone you know whose aim is not to enjoy themselves? Whether you’re the type of person to “live in the moment” and go to parties every other night, or, like me, work reasonably hard to invest in your future, every single person I have ever met wants happiness. And in a society where three meat-meals a day isn’t an unreasonable request, human nature makes us aim for something more. When humans have #life, they want fun. Enter, humanities – more specifically the arts, but you get the picture. This is really where subjects like English, Music, Art, Drama, and to an extent History and RS come in. Without those creative bastards, where would fiction be? Somewhere in that cupboard draw labelled ‘non-existence’ I’d think. Books, films, theatre, song, even video games would not exist without the humanities; this is what they create. Can any of you honestly tell me you’d enjoy #life anywhere near as much as you do now without those things, those brilliant evokers of emotion and joy? Seriously, how would you experience that shiver down the back of your neck or the goosebumps on your arms without fiction and music? I do not like to dwell on a world in which science is the basis of our lives. My time is so filled with all things creative that I just cannot comprehend how mundane such an existence would be. What would your ambitions be without creativity and the humanities? To become rich from some science-orientated job? And then what? Sit in your manor and eat and drink and talk? No TV, no books, no music. For me, a #life of Fact is a #life of no fun, and I know this might be coming out in a bit of a muddle as I have no agenda – I’m just writing as I think – but can you not see reason? Though these creations are not necessary like food is, they are so very necessary if we are to be human. The unnecessary Fact of science creates nothing in comparison to what the humanities do. In conclusion, I hope now you can see how big a part they play in your #life, and basically, the humanities fucking rock!