Because Science

What's easier than saying, "oh phoey!"?

Not to be all Pollyanna, but frankly, it's effortless to belittle other people's passions, to simplify other people's problems, and make sweeping generalizations about groups of people that seem different from oneself.

I've done it. We all do it.

​But it doesn't make anything better.

via GIPHY

via GIPHY

For instance, scientific research.

I recently witnessed someone lathering on about Pointless Research and the Waste of Our Tax Dollars, et cetera. I believe the phrase "Real Job" was used. 

​This topic chaps my butt. What –– we've learned enough already and ought to stop?

​And as if their great-grandparents didn't say the same damn thing about the egg-head scientist working on penicillin, chemo-therapy, seat-belts, gel insoles. Jupiter!

I have faith in the unlikely but happy uses to which scientific research is put.

​Witness Biologist Thomas Seely of Cornell University, who won the 2016 Golden Goose Award for his "honeybee algorithm," a description of how bees organize themselves to gather nectar in the world.

What makes the research "Golden" is how Seely's insight has been used to great effect by systems engineer Craig Tovey* to to improve internet traffic flow. Pure science going toward a practical application.

Footnote: 
*Craig Tovey was also named in the Award. He was working at Georgia Institute of Technology, supported by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research, collaborating with the government of the United Kingdom and big team of other scientists and engineers.

I skip these details on the off chance my readers will finish that above paragraph, but the amount of cooperation and the network of public funding this research involved? It's kind of staggering. 

Bees and the internet, who would have foreseen that? 

This seems science-wonderful: a biologist working quietly among the hives ends up helping improve the speed with which we check Facebook statuses, hunt Pokeman, read e-mail, and basically get through our connected lives.  

The final funding kicker: Craig Tovey connected to Thomas Seely after another team-member heard a National Public Radio feature on Seely's work.

And that? That is one hard-working fractional tax dollar at work. 

References
www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-secret-life-of-bees-99559587/
www.goldengooseaward.org/awardees/honey-bee-algorithm
www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/05/24/136391522/natures-secret-why-honey-bees-are-better-politicians-than-humans
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/09/22/how-honeybee-research-improved-your-internet-experience/?utm_term=.01028bb510d3