Every year, as part of our Science Academy application process students are asked to write an essay on Science in the 21st century under the theme of:

If you think of Earth as a ship voyaging through time and space, and the human race her crew, what is our mission and what is the role of science in achieving that mission?

Write an essay on the above theme that considers the following:
• What do you think is the role of science in 21st-century society?
• How do you think science today is different from science in the past?
• What, in your opinion, are the qualities that are required of a 21st century scientist?
• What do you feel is the greatest challenge facing science and scientists in the 21st century?
• How do you think scientists could begin to address this challenge?

Normally we award 2 top essay prizes. This year however  we felt 3 were worthy of a prize.

Science in the 21st Century

Mei-Li Hayes
Waitaki Girls’ High School

Since its existence, the Earth has completed thousands of laps around the sun, continuing to change and develop with every passing year. Thanks to the development and application of science, our world has become what we see around us today. Like a ship travelling endlessly through the oceans, she has carried us through time and space as her crew. Just like a ship is the crew’s only lifeline in the middle of the ocean, so too is Earth to us. Without our planet there would be no place to live, no way to survive. For this reason, we must protect our planet to the best of our abilities, ensuring that our ‘ship’ is seaworthy not only for our lifetime, but also for the future generations that will follow. Continuing to use and develop science, we must learn to protect our home and maintain it for future generations.

Over the many years, science has continuously developed in order for us to satisfy our curiosity and answer our questions about the universe: how long has the Earth been around, what is matter, why is the sky blue, why do we dream? Now, we have answers to many of these questions that have been around for many years. Our Earth ‘ship’ once trudged through space, the human crew using their sheer strength and willpower to row their way through the waters.

Science has now become the driving force, the propeller of the boat that keeps the Earth moving forward at higher speeds than we ever thought possible. Today we are powered by scientific discoveries: electricity, vaccines, cars, the structure of DNA, computers, phones and more. Science has allowed us to have very different existences than the lives experienced by our ancestors. Focusing on allowing us to live more efficiently and easily, now we can do many things that we couldn’t do five hundred years ago. At this moment in time, we have more knowledge than ever before.
Scientists have become the leaders of our ship, steering us towards a better future. A scientist must have many important qualities to help the boat continue to function for future generations.
The ability to observe, the curiosity to investigate new challenges, the creativity and knowledge to overcome these challenges, the ability to work as a team. If the crew on a ship do not cooperate during hard times, instead focusing on their own individual roles and accomplishments, the ship will be unable to survive the squalls and tempests, and will founder before ultimately succumbing to a watery death. This is the same with the qualities of a scientist.

Science should not be a competition for the SCIENTIST OF THE YEAR award but rather be a collaboration to continue improving our ‘ship’ so that we can continue sailing through time for many years to come.
And yet, in order to reach this better future, there are challenges that must be overcome. We see challenges such as global warming and pollution, caused by previous and current human activities, a direct result of science advancement. While these are great challenges, the ever present monster against science lies within our communities. It bears the name of humans.

While humans are the fathers of science and technology, our communities are still divided, presenting opposing forces to scientific discoveries. Many people around the world still live in denial of various ideas and forms of science, examples being the refusal of vaccines and denial of global warming. Without everyone on the ship working together as a team, how can we possibly address outside issues such as climate change if we are divided on the inside? Our ship is slowly being destroyed because of the lack of sustainability, yet our attitudes towards each other have still not changed, and too little effort is being put into repairing these relationships.
A captain of a ship should not work unseen in the dark making changes to the ship, for this would lead to mistrust and misunderstanding between him and the rest of the crew. In the same way, we need to learn to be open and communicative about future science projects in order to gain the trust and understanding of the rest of our community. If we can learn to share thoughts, ideas and discoveries with one another instead of selfishly aiming for our own prize and glory, the misconception of science being a selfish pursuit will slowly disappear with new generations.

To address issues such as climate change, we need to spark the passion of our land in our budding scientists so that the mission to repair our ship can be passed on to following generations, and together work as a community to save our home.
Our ship is still sailing, continuing on with her endless journey of change. It is up to us to use our knowledge of science to avoid a global scale version of the Titanic and to keep our home afloat for our future generations. Together we must work as a team to save our planet for our children’s children, using science and teamwork as our tools to repair and prevent the growing holes in our ship that could destroy our home.

Walker Conroy-Chelius
Awatapu College

The Engine of Change

What makes science different from every other human endeavour is the provisional nature of its successes. Science’s uniqueness is in its method: as new hypotheses replace old ones, science endlessly changes. If we think of our Earth as a vessel for travel across space and time, I believe science’s role in that mission is to help us achieve social cohesion and enable humanity to work together to keep our spacecraft and its spectacular array of life intact for the duration of the voyage. I believe the most important role for science in the 21st century is to solve issues that have up until now appeared unsolvable. The ever-evolving nature of scientific advances is humanity’s most promising hope for facilitating the fair distribution of clean energy, implementing
sustainable food production, addressing climate change, and continuing to improve the quality of life for the crew of our fragile home.

Science as we know it began in the 4th and 5th century BCE in ancient Greece, where philosophers such as Aristotle and mathematicians such as Pythagoros theorised about the organisation of theuniverse and conducted observational experiments about naturally occurring phenomena. These classical studies laid the groundwork for the great empirical revolution that exploded during the 15th and 16th centuries, an age often marked by Galileo Galilei’s controversial discovery that the Earth–and by extension, humanity–was not at the centre of the solar system. The role of Science is
to push boundaries and allow us to recreate our vision of reality over and over as new theories arise to account for new data. As far as we have come in our understanding of the universe since Galileo’s time–about everything from space exploration to planetary evolution to energy and agricultural or culinary engineering–there is always more to learn.

Science is an ever changing series of revolutionary discoveries. Even in the 21st century innovations such as artificial organs, fibre optics, and 3D printing continue to enhance the quality of our lives, and I believe this progress will continue for as long as humans can maintain a political climate that is stable enough to allow us to undertake research. Science has the unique ability to solve our world’s most pressing threats, even those that take us by surprise. A recent example of the power of science to work in our favour was demonstrated by the development of the Pfizer and other vaccines in 2021 to slow the international spread of the Covid 19 pandemic. If science is an ever-changing and developing tool that adapts to human aspirations and needs, it is
staggering to consider what unimaginable inventions we have yet to discover to meet challenges that still remain beyond our current understanding of the universe.

To meet the challenges of the 21st century, we need not only new scientific ideas, but new scientists. One of the most exciting changes in modern science is the new generation of scientists who bring new perspectives to new problems. More so than ever before, the world’s leading scientists hail from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. For example, 12% more women have been entering various scientific disciplines in the past five years. Another example of the new face of science is the Pūhoro STEMM Academy in Aotearoa New Zealand, which has increased the
number of Maori and Pasifika students entering science. Since 2016, Pūhoro has grown its graduating class from 97 to 2,000 rangatahi¹. This and other like-minded initiatives are what gives humanity our greatest hope for solutions to the catastrophic problems we face, such as climate change, food production, clean energy, and inequality.
History has shown us that science is the only solution to the seemingly insurmountable problems we face. Issues associated with climate change such as glacial melt and oceanic acidity appear overwhelming, and political divisions in our society add an extra challenge to conducting research and educating the public about the latest scientific findings. I believe scientists in the 21st century will need to be more bold and creative than ever before, willing to test new theories, experiment with the latest technology, negotiate public resistance to change, and draw on new perspectives to resolve the daunting questions we face as a species. An example of the innovative nature of 21st century science can be found in the plastic eating bacteria discovered by Japanese
scientists in 2001. According to an article published in The Guardian², these bacteria “appeared to be breaking down plastic fully and processing it into basic nutrients.” In a world where microplastics have spread to Antarctica and infiltrated breast milk, only technological innovation and scientific discovery can help us solve the seemingly intractable problems we’ve inherited from our ancestors. I believe that with the increased diversity of scientists, new technological advancements, and a bold attitude to change and innovation, we will meet the challenges that face us now and tomorrow. If Earth is a spacecraft, science is its engine, and the courage of its crew is the best hope for a long and rewarding journey.

Lizelle van Niekerk
Queens High School

Science in the 21st Century

Kia Ora, Goeie More and good day- my name is Lizelle van Niekerk, and just like you, I live in a world intricately woven together by Science. Without realising it, we are inevitably surrounded by numerous elements of science in our everyday lives- whether it is the alpha particles in smoke alarms, sodium hydroxide found in soaps or the skeletal system currently keeping us upright.

As humans, we are naturally curious creatures on a never-ending journey for knowledge. The Earth is a ship travelling through space and time and the human race is her crew. Since the first mathematical theories from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, we have developed and revolutionised our understanding of the universe around us, thus clearing the fog on the unknown ocean of knowledge.

Science plays a significant role in the 21st century. It provides an opportunity to excel as a society through the development of innovative technological advancements and improving quality of life through critical problem solving. As a modern day society, science has empowered us to solve the current problems that demand our attention such as the optimisation of transportation, the generation of renewable energy and curing infectious diseases. In a world brimming with different cultures and languages, we have been united by humanity’s passion for science and knowledge. Thanks
to the dedication of early scientists, we have reached the pinnacle of discoveries through the development of artificial intelligence. This has cleared the pathway for the next generation of engineers and scientists as we tackle societal issues.

We are entering a new era where we can truly embrace science, rather than making the common mistake of the past by ignoring certain principles for personal gain. In the past, many scientists have been mocked and persecuted for their introduced ideas. The famous Galilieo Galiei was convicted for endorsing Coppernicus’ theory that the Sun was placed in the centre of the universe instead of the Earth. In 1847, Semmelweis conducted research and found that the mortality rates of birthing mothers in clinics declined after doctors started washing their hands. For this, he was brutally mocked by his coworkers which led to his admission to a mental institution. I believe that today,
in modern day science, we are more open minded to new information and can easily find harmony between newly discovered theories and what we have believed in the past. We have grown to be more effective in communication and to consider any possible explanations and methods.

I believe that a 21st century scientist should have the ability to be open minded by employing logical thinking. They should refrain from biased opinions when conducting experiments and make logical decisions based on what they find. They should have an undeniable desire for learning, actively seeking answers for their burning questions. Their persistent characters should prevent failures from demotivating them from their clear goals. If Earth was a ship, voyaging through time and space, and the human race her crew, our mission should thus be to enforce these qualities in upcoming engineers, scientists and leaders. A well trained crew could ensure further success when given additional resources.

One of the greatest challenges scientists face today is to access proper funding for equipment, resources and quality education. Without the proper maintenance, this ship could experience internal problems that could lead to the combustion of the engine, restricting the voyage of the crew. If there is a lack of proper facilities, the rate of scientific advancement could be stunted.
This could be addressed by requesting funding from the government and by offering programmes that enable young scientists to grow in their developing careers.

Another challenge scientists face today is ignorance. Ignorance could be fatal to a society’s development since it could result in a lack of progress due to questionable decision making. As scientists we should stray from ignorance and rather pursue knowledge. A wise captain would play an essential role in steering the ship during times of rumbling thunder and stormy oceans. Scientists can thus address this specific problem by bringing truth and their findings to light, thus educating the public. By doing this, we would enable more people to gain awareness about the world around them and to deepen their understanding and appreciation for the work accomplished by those before them.