Science, Art, Litt, Science based Art & Science Communication
Qs people asked on science and my replies to them -Part 227
Q: Is it okay to coerce people to take vaccines? I am asking this Q because I read a news story where a district officials are threatening health care workers.
https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/no-vaccin...
"No vaccine, no salary: Odisha dist warning to health workers
The Cuttack district administration on Friday threatened to withhold salary and remuneration of healthcare and anganwadi workers who fail to turn up for Covid vaccination by the February 10 deadline."
What do you think?
Krishna: It is unfortunate to deal with such situations where people refuse to cooperate with the government officials.
Sci-com failure? I don't think so. But some people are creating panic by recklessly questioning the speedy development of some vaccines. Yes, you should question some things but not recklessly. I tried to answer these careless questions in this way: countering misinformation on vaccines
The fear created by these baseless allegations are making some people run away.
In the US when some parents refused to get their children vaccinated on religious grounds, some schools refused to admit these children. When the parents of these children went to courts, the courts told them to vaccinate the children. These parents because of their reckless behaviour might endanger the lives of other children (who for various reasons cannot get vaccinated).
In Australia too similar situations arose where the government threatened some of its citizens that it would stop their payments if they didn't get vaccinated.
It is the welfare of the whole societies that should be taken into account, not a few peoples' right to refuse. We cannot allow the vulnerable to die because of these baseless fears of some people.
If communication fails to convince people because of the great fear created in them by some vested interests, 'soft threats' are okay to bring them to their senses.
Q: Do snakes get attracted to sweet smelling bushes like "Moghili"?
Krishna: No this is not true. Snakes love areas of dense coverage where an ample food source is present. Thick bushes attract rats, lizards, chameleons and the sweet smell of flowers attract some pollinators like birds and insects. Snakes might visit these places to eat these creatures, and hide in the bushes.
Q: Can snakes smell?
Snakes do their best sniffing, not with their conventional nose (though they do smell through their nostrils, too), but with a pair of organs on the roof of their mouths called the Jacobson's or vomeronasal organ.
To smell through their mouths, snakes rely on tongue-flicking.
Q: Is it necessary to be rich to become a successful scientist because as far as I know, many scientists were rich?
Many scientists are not rich. What you ‘know’ is not true.
The world's richest people by degrees
Yes, some scientists are rich but they earned their money through some other means : Top 10 Richest Scientists In The World
No it is not necessary to be rich to become a successful scientist. You have to be a dedicated scientist to become successful.
Q: Why do some people question everything while others don't?
Krishna: Just keep trying and don’t expect immediate positive results because numerous psychological factors of people come in the way
Just two days back, a homeopathic doctor read my answer on alternative medicines and pseudo-science and started arguing with me. No matter how much genuine evidence I gave her to say homeopathy is pseudo-science, she refused all that and said , “ I think you need to redefine the words science and scientist now”.
Can science be changed to fit into somebody’s private definition? Ones personal views and biases?
You can’t educate some people, because they simply don’t want to get educated. Instead they ask you to change to support their world.
Feel like screaming now?
If homeopathy brings bread and butter to her table, how can the lady dig her own grave by accepting the evidence I gave her? I understood that and smiled to myself. Unless we provide another better alternative, we won’t succeed with these people.
Okay, we can exploit the same psychological factors that are coming in our way ‘if’ we are smart and ‘if’ the person is vulnerable and ‘if’ we can provide better alternatives and ‘if’ these people keep their mind-doors ajar and ‘if’ we can check the misinformation that is being dumped into their brains.
Q: How does science differ from other ways of interpreting the world?
Krishna: Science tries to describe exactly how this universe works. It is an extremely slow process because it tries to verify, falsify what it found using scientific method to avoid human biases , fallacies, and distortions of the mind.
Other ways take a completely opposite route. They imagine things, use belief based biases to describe how the world works, refuse to get falsified/verified and attack people who try to correct them.
Q: What is your main reason for attending scientific conferences?
Krishna: Why do you want to control science and evidence based facts? And things that bring prosperity, good health, jobs and progress?
‘Societies’ can consist ignorant and irrational people. If they try to control science, there will be chaos all around and you entre a regressive state.
You will find a very good example here: Madanapalle murders: How educated Indians fall prey to preachings o...
Science should be controlled by only scientific method and people who follow it strictly. They will take care of it well. Don’t worry.
Q: Do you believe in the scientific explanation on how everything is made?
When evidence is provided to you, you have to accept it! When scientific method is strictly followed to arrive at a conclusion, you have to trust it.
Not doing so denotes irrationality of the mind and a life of the pseudo-world.
Some prefer living in a pseudo-world where belief system works.
I don’t belong to that category. I trust only science because it is the best under the present circumstances.
Scientific principles run this universe. I prefer to learn them as they are.
I prefer living in a real world.
Q: Why does education take precedence over intelligence (at least prima-facie)?
Krishna: Knowledge is the base for intelligence. Intelligence without knowledge is like a castle in the air.
Human brains are the product of blind and unguided evolution. They were designed to solve practical problems impinging just on our survival and reproduction. So their earlier working wasn’t that great.
Earlier societies lacked much of the knowledge we have now. So they were less progressed then we are now. As knowledge increased, so did the progress of the societies we live in.
Remove knowledge, we would go back to the levels of earlier centuries again. So knowledge is very vital for intelligence development and the advancement of the world.
Education, when given in the right way, enhances knowledge and in turn this leads to the right intelligence and progress.
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