I have seen many times in these and other boards people questioning the impact of science in out lives. I want to start a thread that explores some of the things science has done for us that we take for granted. I'll start things off by discussing cold.

This is from the PBS Nova episode called "Absolute Zero" The link below will allow you to read the transcripts from the show or in the top bar you find links to streaming video.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3501_zero.html

Ah I seen this a few mouth ago, very good episode. I really like the Bose–Einstein condensate.

and another one: http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/77

Antony van Leeuwenhoek was an unlikely scientist.Leeuwenhoek succeeded in making some of the most important discoveries in the history of biology. It was he who discovered bacteria, free-living and parasitic microscopic protists, sperm cells, blood cells, microscopic nematodes and rotifers, and much more. His researches, which were widely circulated, opened up an entire world of microscopic life to the awareness of scientists.

At some time before 1668, Antony van Leeuwenhoek learned to grind lenses, made simple microscopes, and began observing with them. His skill at grinding lenses, together with his naturally acute eyesight and great care in adjusting the lighting where he worked, enabled him to build microscopes that magnified over 200 times, with clearer and brighter images than any of his colleagues could achieve. What further distinguished him was his curiosity to observe almost anything that could be placed under his lenses, and his care in describing what he saw. Although he himself could not draw well, he hired an illustrator to prepare drawings of the things he saw, to accompany his written descriptions. Most of his descriptions of microorganisms are instantly recognizable.

On September 17, 1683, Leeuwenhoek wrote to the Royal Society about his observations on the plaque between his own teeth, "a little white matter, which is as thick as if 'twere batter." These were among the first observations on living bacteria ever recorded. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/leeuwenhoek.html

Edward Jenner (1749-1823), after training in London and a period as an army surgeon, spent his whole career as a country doctor in his native county of Gloucestershire in the West of England. His research was based on careful case-studies and clinical observation more than a hundred years before scientists could explain the viruses themselves. So successful did his innovation prove that by 1840 the British government had banned alternative preventive treatments against smallpox. "Vaccination," the word Jenner invented for his treatment (from the Latin vacca, a cow), was adopted by Pasteur for immunization against any disease.

In the eighteenth century, before Jenner, smallpox was a killer disease, as widespread as cancer or heart disease in the twentieth century but with the difference that the majority of its victims were infants and young children. In 1980, as a result of Jenner's discovery, the World Health Assembly officially declared "the world and its peoples" free from endemic smallpox. http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/nathist/jenner.html

If one were to choose among the greatest benefactors of humanity, Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) would certainly rank at the top. He solved the mysteries of rabies, anthrax, chicken cholera, and silkworm diseases, and contributed to the development of the first vaccines. He debunked the widely accepted myth of spontaneous generation, thereby setting the stage for modern biology and biochemistry. He described the scientific basis for fermentation, wine-making, and the brewing of beer. Pasteur's work gave birth to many branches of science, and he was singlehandedly responsible for some of the most important theoretical concepts and practical applications of modern science. http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Louis_Pasteur.php

So let's summarize: Thanks to science of Biology we have an awareness of bacteria, freedom from small pox and anthrax, better beer and wine all before the 20th century.

I see that is a lifesaver for many!

Thank you Antony van Leeuwenhoek

I don't know about the cold thing TJB - The Aztecs actually created the first freeze tried potatoe. By leaving it out in the cold night to get thouroughly frosted and in the sun during the day, they created a potatoe with a shelf life of 7 years - I think only Cracker-Jack beats that.

Now about this melting polar ice cap thing - any word from the sceince department on what will happen first, the next ice-age or the fall of the American Empire?

Well if by the fall of the American empire you mean new World Order, then that would get my vote. Although, if we try fvcking around with the climate artificially, we are likely to see some really screwy weather. Global warming is natural process and not the man made Armageddon it is frequently made out to be.

Science elevates the human mind from superstition, and that is a blessing to many. It's hard to say what pure science will lead to, and often the people who invent new ideas or describe a phenomenon don't have any idea of what it will lead to. So in the strictess sense, science doesn't do anything material for people at large, besides augmenting their common thinking into a more logical form. It is really the people who apply science to society that do the most good or harm to the public. They make new technology, discover cures and inovate new practices for old problems, and are often quite removed from the people who originated the material that they work with. In way, science has provided the fodder for new developments in the technological level of society, but it can hardly be said that science did that for the wider lot of humans, that was the business man and inventors. I'd like to think that science offers humanity a more accurate way of viewing the world, one that is closer to the reality of things. To those who value truth, no further benefit is necessary.