Once accused of witchcraft and heresy, scientists are bent on a voyage to make life easier for all of us. Without their inquisitive task, many of us would not currently exist: We would have died from pestilences and personal disasters induced by any of the many things we not take it for granted we're safe from. Or, our ancestors would have died before we could have been born.

Look around you: Starting with the monitor you're viewing, how much of our existence is NOT a (direct or indirect) result of scientific inquiry? Even your cherished potted plants would not be there but for past efforts of botanists, agriculturalists (soil and fertilizer), and the people who invented modern plumbing and all the related devices, your heating system, the pot the plant lives in, and most features of your home. That's a lot of stuff, and you've barely begun to consider it!

And yet!—unless you are extraordinarily cloistered, not much more of your life will pass before you meet someone who raves against scientific knowledge—who says science is an evil pursuit of men and women with evil purposes in mind! An astounding number of such individuals can be found all around us and, what is most amazing, all of them take for granted the accomplishments of science that support their own lives and never give it a thought… They use the technology inherent to science to vent and spread their ranting. They use that same technology to travel, learn about world events, entertain themselves, print their angry literature, and level accusations at the very people who enabled their existences.

My Mom used to have a saying: "They don't know which side their bread gets buttered on." We are an amazing creature. We can be almost completely crazy and, with the help of like-minded friends, we can survive and, what's most amazing, thrive.