In one of those rare moments of happy coincidence that some call kismet, I was standing next to the Editor of this paper when the subject of Science came up and I convinced Alan to let me write something to tell people why I think it deserves the capital.

At the turn of the last century, when our parents or grandparents went to school there were perhaps 400 distinct job titles. One could be a farmer, a grocer, etc. Our grandparents married young - they had to - as they tended not to live very long. They would marry after high school (often in high school), choose a job, have children, and for the next 20-30 years carry the same job before finally retiring. Conversely, at the turn of this century there were over 4000 distinct job titles – most of which had not even been dreamed of in 1911 and almost all of them in Science. In fact there are more titles in medicine than all previous job titles put together. There are over 125 distinct job titles in health information technology alone - whatever that is.

We live longer than our grandparents, thanks to Science. Barring accident, you stand to live until you have 3 digits on your birthday cake. Not on a respirator either but healthy, active and productive. In the field of medicine alone Man has made tremendous strides in diagnostic imagery and treatment. New forms of medicine are constantly being invented and developed. There are new medications for Parkinson’s and for Dementia. Hip replacements are out-patient and you can get a heart or lung transplant with little fuss. Soon you will be able to walk into a clinic, have a blood sample taken - from which they will be able to build you any organ that fails. Perhaps our children will live as long as 150 years. It is calculated that they will have up to three careers by the time they are 30. Their last career hasn’t even been invented yet. But we do know what field it will be in. That’s right. Science! Almost unthinkably, it is argued by some that this trend in longevity is gaining speed such that functional immortality will be a reality by the end of the century.

We don’t just live longer, we live better. I recently watched a movie from the 1970s. In it the hero and the heroine were separated by the evil doer and missed meeting up by mere seconds. If this movie had been made today, the whole plot would have had to have been changed. They would have easily been able to communicate by means of cellular phone. In fact a tremendous amount of gas is probably SAVED each and every day because we no longer have missed connections. Instead of driving around looking for someone at their house and their favorite restaurant and the park we just call them. And not only voice communication but information in all its forms is available right in your hand. Because I am perpetually late, I write this on my Droid while driving. Email, only around for a decade or so, is already going obsolete as instant messaging and social networking communications take over. Lol and J were not even in use 20 years ago and now dictionaries (which should tell us what the language is not what it should be - IMHO) have included them in current usage.

And that is just the part of Science that we see. Particle accelerators find new particles of matter all the time. Remember the Space Shuttle? It’s funny that I can write it that way. The Space Shuttle Program has been cancelled and it is a good thing. The Discovery and its kin had not even been invented when I was born and yet is obsolete today. This is not a bad thing. Imagine still commuting in a 1960s car or flying in a 1960s airplane. It was a wonderful program but we don’t need a shuttle. We need a vehicle to Mars. In fact there are people who are putting serious amounts of money into leaving the solar system all together. Your children could be on that flight. They might have to be. There are currently 6.94 billion people on this rock. Science will have to come up with some pretty good tricks to feed us all for the next generation.

So if Alan likes this article and thinks I can string together two sentences in a row, he might consider giving me a permanent platform from which to summarize and digest technology and medicine for you from the news. So go ahead, pick up your smart phones. Send texts to Ouraynews. Friend them on Face Book. Tweet them on Twitter. Tell them we need more Science!