Science is an Extraordinary Opportunity for Personal Growth

HUMILITY. What’ s a DNA molecule? How is it capable of dictating a definite response? How many consequential and regulatory steps are actually needed to achieve the result? How, when and where are they controlled? When we inject in a human body an mRNA molecule how do we control its journey, the site and the level of its expression? When we inject an antigen into a human body are we able to predict the strength, the duration, the type of the immunological response? Are we able to control the changes occurring at the level of the different B- and T-lymphocytes populations? How can we explain the side effects of almost any drug? Do we know the pathways by which they work? These are just a few examples restricted to my own areas of interest that cannot find a conclusive answer and indeed may never find it if we consider that any effect, occurring in a different point of time and space, is likely exerted by multiple molecular and cellular events triggered either inside or outside of a given organism. And this has just to do with humans, a numerical fraction of the whole universe. Not to mention the quantum dimension. Now, do we have to stop doing research, because of these arguments? Stop looking for new answers to our ever-growing questions? NO and NEVER, because this is just the magnificence of our work: accept the challenge trying to uncover new fragments of an unlimited truth. This is also the reason why I have always treasured the most famous teaching of master Socrates when he said that he knew of not knowing. I believe that staying humble is the most straightforward way to grasp a further piece of knowledge.