Danish researchers reported on Monday Nov. 11, 2002 that people who drink a little wine seem to have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. Other group of researchers said on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2002 that even though alcohol may be good for heart, a daily glass of wine or beer can increase a woman's risk of having a breast cancer. Such reports by scientists on the effects of alcohol change everyday and confuse people.
Whereas some believe that science only disorients and confuses people with endless "discoveries", J.Michael Bishop, a scientist and a professor of microbiology as well as the winner of the Nobel Prize, believes otherwise. He claimed, "[w]e scientists take things apart in order to understand the whole to solve the mystery-an enterprise that we regard as one of the great, ennobling tasks of humankind" (238). Bishop states that science has solved many of the mysteries and expanded the scientific human knowledge, which subsequently have helped better the quality of our living and start to unravel the secret of life. He also points out many scientific achievements such as the introduction of vaccines to preprogram human body to fight against viruses or bacteria when they invade our cells. He states that warnings about acid rain caused from automobile emissions and the risks of addiction to tobacco all are beneficial information to humans. As a defender of scientific inquiry, Bishop stated that "[r]sistance to science is born of fear. Fear, in turn, is bred by ignorance. And it is ignorance that is our deepest malady" (241). He also blamed elementary and secondary schools where science is not treated as vigorously as it should be, and he notes how people are ignoring science, the very thing that betters and sometimes saves our lives, in their daily lives.
It is important to point out, however, that resistance to science is not from the ignorance or fear, but from the endless untruthful scientific reports from media. The pure goal of scientific knowledge that should be the helping of people's welfare, but this goal has been distorted recently by the false reports and the seeking of fame among scientists. According to "postmodernists," the "objective truths of science are in reality all 'socially constructed fictions' no more than 'useful truths' and science itself is 'politics by other means'" (238). They implied that science has become one of the tools of political and economic interests, departing from carrying out its true goal of helping humans by uncovering truth and secret of life. Representative George E. Brown, Jr. (D-Calf.), a former physicist, complained about science by calling it a "knowledge paradox," which means that the more reports of scientific knowledge, the more social problems there are. A famous of example of this is cloning of animals and humans. Ever since Dolly had been cloned, there has been ongoing debate on whether or not to expand the cloning of animals to humans.Not only that, scientific knowledge is more and more used in wars, and people nowadays are worried mostly of the next chemical war, which will most likely destroy the entire world if it were to occur. Another postmodernist, a Colorado governor Richard Lamm, claimed that he no longer trusts biomedical research contributions to the improvement of human health because the scientists have done "little or nothing".Despite the ongoing reports on scientific discoveries, the actual changes in our lives due to those discoveries have been really slow.
One of the examples of supporting postmodernist comes from the reports of neuro-psychologists regarding the cognitive changes associated with aging. Their reports have changed every time and still no one knows one single answer. When scientists reported first, they claimed that right-hemisphere focal damage is responsible for the cognitive performance; then, scientists reported that cognitive performance depends on frontal lobe of the brain; recentely, however, they claimed that it is caused by the medial temporal lobe and hippocampal system of the brain might be responsible of it (Qualls and Abels, 43-49). As this example indicates, postmodernists think that scientists have only made people confused and disoriented by the endless research reports.
Nowadays, Americans like coffee. They enjoy coffee every morning. Americans, ranging from high school students, college students, to business people, wait in line at Star Bucks hoping to buy a cup of caffeine-contained coffee that is more harmful than beneficial for the health. Before coffee was not popular for people, there has been many reports from scientists that coffee would be harmful for health. There were many charts that was comparing caffeine contained common drinks- Brewed coffee (60z)-100mg, tea (60z)-40mg, caffeinated soft drink 45mg (Gary, 151). Scientists emphasized the harmful effects of the coffee because caffeine leads to a disease such as osteoporosis- the weak bone mass. However, on Nov. 7, 2002 Fern Garber, a scientist, reported that Java reduces Type 2 diabetes risk, claiming that caffeine is beneficial in the fact that it increases body's response to insulin and other ingredients found in coffee- magnesium, chlorogenic acid that may have beneficial effects for health. As long as we buy coffee at Coffee Bean, or Star Bucks, we might encounter more news from scientists that coffee is not harmful for health.
Another confusing report is on alcohol consumption. Alcohol should be harmful for the health because a lot of diseases are connected to the alcohol. However, we encounter a lot of news about alcohol consumption. On Nov. 11, 2002 Maggie Fox, reported that a little wine might keep the mind sharp- people who drink a little wine seem to have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. And the next day, on Nov. 12, 2002, Patricia Reaney, reported that alcohol linked to raised risk of breast cancer- a daily glass of wine or beer can increase a woman's risk of breast cancer.
The more disturbing research report is on the estrogen use for menopause women. My cousin has been taking estrogen hormone ever since she was at age 45. Now she is 61 years old and is a very active and energetic woman like any other young person. However, she heard a bad news from the researchers, scientists, that estrogen may cause breast cancer. Extremely frustrated by the news, she went to a physician who had recommended her taking estrogen. The more embarrassing thing was the physician wants her stop taking estrogen for the time being until he makes sure what to do.
Everyday, scientists report their research projects that are funded by big business companies or organizations or government. The main goal of scientific researches have become more and more for profit and not for human welfare. In ancient times, people get old with good health and die from natural causes or accidents, but in modern society with such scientific development, people die from all kinds of diseases, heart attacks, hypertension, diabetes, Alzheimer's diseases, cancer or AIDS. Scientific development has not come up with a solution to any one of those diseases, not even a simple disease like flu. They have not discovered any drugs that prevent us from getting flu in every season or year. Today's scientists are merely working for their own interests, making people confused and perplexed, reporting any results that are not firmly proved and experimented enough.
Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, implies how dangerous the acquirement of knowledge is. She claims, "[h]ow dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow" (231). People are suffering too much from untruthful and ever changing information that scientists bring to the public. When my cousin didn't know the harmful effect of the estrogen, she was not confused or disoriented from taking estrogen; however, ever since she heard the new research result.