As we celebrate another trip around the sun, some among us attempt to apply meaning and perspective through introspection, while others take a wider view. New discoveries in science constantly widen our understanding of our surroundings and ourselves.

Recently science unveiled new findings: fossilized remains of primitive life dating back 3.5 billion years, the oldest found to date. NASA found a nearby solar system containing seven planets, six rocky as our own. Medical science began testing an artificial womb with much success, allowing future premature babies a reasonable chance at life. Advances in cancer treatments use human blood cells as delivery systems. Scientists in China teleported properties of light particles called photons from the ground into outer space for the first time this year, using mirrors and lasers. The finding could completely change how we move energy and information around the world.

Unfortunately, there are those in the U.S. who are content gazing inward, consumed by personal/political ambitions, willing to abandon science and critical thinking. History is clear what happens when reason is rejected, when superstition reigns, when socio-political ambitions ignore common good. Presently, U.S. scientists are leaving for more hospitable countries, a shameful consequence of current administration, an anti-science regime and voting base obsessed with self preservation at all cost, an unhealthy Dark Ages mentality.

Civil society progresses, human knowledge expands and our health benefits when curiosity is allowed to flourish, best exemplified in the arts and science.

Patrick Cunningham

Twin Lakes