It all goes back to Isaac Asimov's famous words "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'"
Because human beings are a short-sighted, parasitic species to the planet and its' other species. I think it was Ricky Gervais who said something along the lines of "its our responsibility to kill ourselves for the benefit of everything else on the planet"
Like almost everything Aasimov said and wrote, it looks very smart, but it's incredibly stupid. Eureka is what happens once we figure out the explanation for That's funny.
@@Ezullof thank you for your comment about how stupid azimov is. It seems that you're super smart. He wrote 200 books. Please share with us the names of some of the books that you wrote so we can learn and become just as smart as you are. Thank you.
What drives me up the wall is we choose to give scientists very little funding yet their discoveries directly improve everyone's lives. It's like humanity doesn't want to advance to a better world.
Hey, thank you for this video. I'm a high school biology teacher and the last few years have been a struggle to convince students knowledge for the sake of knowledge is valuable. This gives me a real world example of the power of curiosity. Thank you
As a high school geometry teacher, I agree. My least favorite question is "When am I ever going to use this?" Even if I give them a concrete example of it being used in the real world, the response to that is, "Well I'm not going to do that when I get older."
I once read a response to this question that went something like “High school math is ‘useless’ the same way lifting dumbbells is ‘useless.’ While lifting weights serves no direct purpose, it’s good exercise that can help you in real life, like carry groceries or move a couch. Math is like weightlifting for your brain, and doing it helps you in problem solving.”
With the current cultural environment, things are likely to get worse. Many students are likely to come to class with preconceived notions about certain issues, that may be at odds with objective reality. A simple statement about the ways things are, may have unintended consequences. A book that I think may be helpful for teachers these days is titled " How Minds Change" by David McRaney. It explores various methods of helping others to reach better conclusions in a non-confrontational manner
But if you go back and listen to these examples, you'll notice that the people doing the work of discovering things are rarely the ones who get any value out of it. Scientists rarely get rich off the science. Investors do. So what any reasonably intelligent student is going to hear is "if you work hard at science, you can make somebody else rich". That's not the motivation you're reaching for.
@jursamaj Only if getting rich is your endgame, most people don't want Anna get rich, they wanna get well off, but not have to deal with the stress that come witg big money, and some people aren't even motivated by money at all. An extreme case is Perelman, a Fields Medalist and Milenium prize winner, lives basically as a very poor people, becauae he refus d to receive the prizes he won. When asked why, he stated that at that moment he knew more about how the universe work than anyone else in the world, and what was money compared to the thrill that gave him.
This is also why it's important for the results of research to be as accessible as possible. The easier seemingly-useless information is to find, the more likely somebody will stumble upon that information and use it to save lives.
PSA: If you ever come across a Gila nonster in the AZ desert, don't get close to them. 1. It's illegal to disturb/capture/poach them. 2. They're very fast when they need to be and they have a venom that likely won't delete you, but depending on how much venom they deliver, you'll likely be wishing you were deleted.
And their venom is in the teeth at the *back* of their jaw. They get it into you by GNAWING it into you. Not only will you be poisoned but you're going to be actively chewed on by an angry lizard while it happens.
Mathematics is probably another really good example of the application of "useless" knowledge. Because mathematicians have already found ways to approximate polynomial roots, break up functions into component sinusoids, and use imaginary numbers (for example), we have very convenient ways to compute things that the original discoverers would have never even thought would be an application.
Nobody had any use for lasers when they were invented at all.. just a few years later, lasers are synonymous with 'science' ! They ended up in everything from range finding to audio playback and even cooling down atoms to near absolute zero. What a game changer! The statement 'what's the point of this?' should never be used around scientists doing research, you just never know... Same with atom smashers. Critics ask why billions need to be spent on ever larger particle accelerators. But, knowing how the universe works could lead to absolutely anything.. if we got a final complete standard model and equation to describe how everything works, surely we could invent anything we wanted. Room temperature superconductors are the next holy grail breakthrough in science. It would transform our whole world overnight. No waste electricity, any speed CPUs not limited by heat, it could slow global warming enough for us to survive if we're saving 40% of all electricity transferred over power lines
Agree! Examples abound, such as in data encryption. Pure number theory discoveries of Euclid and Euler and Fermat among others from centuries ago are now absolutely critical in online banking and commerce and communication. Their discoveries are allowing us to watch this video!
@qwerty_and_azerty yeah. What we call useless can be objective and subjective. It depends on what is at hand. I've had this discussion before. Knowing just to know can be pointless. Matter of fact this is just my opinion. All knowledge we attain or seek in this world, is pointless. Since we all die and we can't take it with us after we die. But in the meantime in this world. I think there is knowledge that is more important or crucial then others. I wouldn't call knowing about sports is the same as knowing how light and Electromagnetism. I agree that we live in a world where people don't care about all fields and aspects of science and that includes math. Why do u think that is?
I hate that the sake of knowledge for knowledge's sake is so hard to fund. My interests lie in the biology of insects, but I don't really care about the ones that are attacking crops or spreading disease. I want to know about the underdogs, the ones doing their work in the background that we'll never know about because they "don't matter." Funding is rarely put towards researching groups that don't have a direct impact on industry or health...
You could collect insects. I found out recently that most of the species that aren't described and don't even have names are insects. So if you collect and pin them properly you could add to the field. You have to check how to pin and put the info correctly cause if you don't they're useless.
insects are sooo frickin cool... personally I want to make robotic insects someday. they are so small and yet are able to work together and create things (especially in eusocial insects as in the case of ants, which are also fricking cool). i am terrified of cockroaches, and most insects that fly, but I have to admit that watching them from a distance is fascinating...
You kinda hit the nail on the head when talking about science back in the day being more like philosophy; in fact prior to the widespread adoption of terms like “science” and “scientist”, around the turn of the century, they were called “natural philosophy” and “natural philosophers” respectively. As was the case in german, only it remains that way to this day: “Naturwissenschaften“, and I swear if I hear even one joke about german words being long I won’t hesitate to take this straight to the Bundesverfassungsgericht!
@@vulcanfeline that's why I'm wondering. PhD's aren't that common in Germany, the Dr.-degrees are different here. And the term "Naturwissenschaften" is just "natural sciences", like you already mentioned. So if we talk about philosophy or philosophers it's mostly because someone studies or studied philosophy itself.
Small correction: Gila monsters are one of the few lizards with medically significant venom. Venom in low doses have been found within varius monitor lizard species among others in recent years.
@@iLLuminatedWithDren While they are not lizards, Garter Snakes were also long thought to be completely non venomous. But they are. A mild neurotoxin that helps to subdue their small prey, but isn't really that dangerous to humans. Point being, sometimes things are indeed venomous even if conventional knowledge says they aren't.
The currency of scientists is knowledge, not money. They're willing to put a lot of time and effort into learning new knowledge, especially in their area of interest. Most of them became research scientists because there was something they wanted to find out, and if they have to do research that doesn't take them in that direction, they will be less than enthusiastic about it.
@@kellydalstok8900 It's not about economic benefits. Scientific curiosity leads to technological innovation, which leads to disruptive technologies, which threaten the position of the people and companies that are in power. Disruptive technologies rarely benefit the ones who are in control. Consequently, they'll do what they can to make sure things don't change. Incremental improvements that don't really change who benefits are okay, which is why there is a strong push to do research that is predictably productive. The people who run things make choices based on whether it will lead to them staying in charge or not, even if those choices are against the interests of the general public. They control the money that can be used to influence universities, government agencies, and congress to have things go the way they want. The book "Why Nations Fail" has examples of this, and how it affects economies. The book contains highlights of the research the authors did that earned them the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics, and shows the connection between political power and economic power.
Let nerds be nerds. Let the curious be curious. I remember one of the emeritus professors from Nottingham talking about how nobody thought the beginnings of MRI research were ever going to go anywhere... and now we all treat MRIs as a (very expensive) normal thing.
@arifbagusprakoso2308 But you are willing to benefit from the discoveries they make and the technologies derived from them. You want the benefits but don't want to pay for it.
This is something I have been thinking about for a long time, research should be made for the sake of knowledge itself as you can never know what possible applications we could find in the future for things that seem useless today Beautiful video btw, it really brought a smile to my face
11:30 politicians should be fired when they say stuff like that. some old fool once wasted his entire life studying lines, the stars and mathematics he had no idea he'd basically found our sciences you never know what you'll get
Ya, politicians should, but their entire platform is to run on misinformation because it takes seconds to make up nonsense but hours to disprove it per person. The average person is unwilling to do deeper research and will take their words at face value no matter how wrong.
Joe is right: it may not be immediately obvious that knowledge gained today will be useful tomorrow. But I am living proof of it (in the workforce): the skills I gained from cold-calling and door-knocking in past sales jobs now help me as volunteer recruiter at a nonprofit to network with others and build relationships. I would never have thought these worlds would collide, yet here we are.
About 10 years ago, a professor in my college class mentioned an anegdote about a certain topic that we were covering. This year, i encountered a situation at my job where this information was actually useful and helped us to solve a problem. All knowledge could one day be helpful, and your brain will pull it deep feom your memory when you encounter a similar situation
I once visited the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Mass. and was told that of the pupils they accepted every year, based on the project research they were proposing, they always accepted one that had a crazy project that nobody ever believed in, the reason being that they usually ended up learning an incredibly lot from researching the projects that were never going to succeed. The funny thing is that now and again the crazy projects actually pan out.
its funny you made this video, the other day my now ex-friend was saying that me learning physics and chemistry was stupid and that i would never use it and that i was wasting my time. I highly disagreed.
Yep, and after your taxes go toward funding, say, a new medicine, companies patent it so no one else can make it, and sell what your tax dollars paid to invent back to you for a profit.
I know it's sarcasm, but government research is responsible for the internet and GPS. Edit to add: courtesy of our ridiculous military budget, too. Create a perceived military use for something, and you might get space race levels of funding.
When superconductivity was discovered, the scientists who first got that working thought that it was a funny quirk of quantum physics but would never be useful. Now every hospital has an MRI machine. The magnet in an MRI depends on superconductivity for its strength.
Hey parents and teachers! If your child/student asks you a question, answer it, no matter how unimportant it may seem to you! Nurture their curiosity and confidence to ask questions. The later in life they get, the harder it will be to start doing this. Don't expect other adults in their life to do it for you! A curious child grows into an intelligent adult. Don't stunt them! Edit, for clarification: If you don't know the answer, it's ok to admit that you don't know! Teach them how to research things on the internet. It will save you a lot of time if they already know how to read and type!
I am far from a scientist, but I like to watch things that can teach me something (which is why I subscribe to this channel). As such, I’ve collected a lot of useless knowledge over the years. I know a little about a lot of things. I’ve found that to be super useful because it has helped me to have at least semi-informed responses to a LOT of different, unusual scenarios in my life. It’s kind of like knowing how to perform CPR. Most people will never need to perform CPR on someone else, so it could be seen as useless knowledge for the vast majority of people, but if you do end up in a scenario where someone needs CPR, that bit of useless knowledge can be literally life-saving.
Excellent perspective! I remember when I was writing My Capstone paper to conclude undergrads about having these discussions with my mentor and trying to make the point that size that is not applied science is not useful. now that has been 5 years since I graduated and I see tremendous value in science that has apparently no application in the short term
It always concerns me how little lawmakers and policy-makers value science. The classic example is how much NASA spends each year, and yet few actually are aware of how much R&D in this field has had direct benefits to us all.
You could replace "science" with "knowledge" and you would be very correct. They don't value the lessons of history or math or the sciences. They have only two priorities (1) Get elected (2) get re-elected
5:54 - Phylogenetically, all snakes are lizards. So there are PLENTY of venomous lizards! (Go argue with Clint's Reptiles about it, if you're into that kinda thing.)
Thank you for making this video, Joe. Always important to highlight the reason for curiosity-based research & how it fuels humanity (& our economy. The ROI on curiosity turns out to be huge). Research might sound silly until it suddenly isn’t any more.
@@luddity Yes, their saliva was only recently recognized as containing a venom which inhibits clotting and tends to induce shock. This combined with bacteria in their mouths makes it more likely that the wounds they inflict will become infected and eventually kill their prey, allowing the dragons to feed without having to fight. They're very patient hunters.
The more diverse knowledge you have, the more creative you can be with your outlook, in thinking critically to solve problems or invent solutions. Many things humans face are complex and require someone to make associations across multiple variables. Accumulating data and having diverse knowledge is priceless!
I've always loved to learn just for the sake of learning. There is no useless knowledge, some knowledge is just more or less useful in certain situations. but that's what we are, the learning animal. We don't have big claws, big teeth, or horns. We control our environment and our world because we learn. We are data machines. We learn and then teach each other what we've learned and overtime that knowledge becomes more and more useful.
I loved this video!!! I feel so encouraged:)) I’ve studied perspective drawing and have found some small but exciting evidence for polynomial perspective. Pure research if you will and I can’t wait for someone to find a way to apply it beyond just art!
yes, yes, yes!! i'm an armchair "expert" in just about anything my mind has in mind at any given moment and am currently publishing my 11th collection of poetry, while also working on AI as well as the concept and math of an astrophysics theory. just goes to show, i suppose, what it just goes to show! ;) PS - i was in the process of writing a comment on art here only moments before your post!
I literally spend my life learning, this is because once your dead that information cannot be destroyed so therefore the more you learn then the more of you will be left once all your physical matter decays and turns to dust!
This is my favorite video of yours yours and I like all of them. The curious ones of us with no profit motive have made the most profit for capitalists. Funny huh? Yet funding is tough for the curious. If govt or capitalists can't see profits within 5 years, it's a no-go. Yet, this video shows exactly how much profit and new industries arise from one person asking a question. I wish we didn't even have to make a financial case for curiosity but here we are. Unlease the curious and everyone's lives improve!
As a teacher, this is so true. I'd even argue this extends to real life. Seemingly 'useless' things that I've learned in school that I hated, somehow came around and helped me in completely different areas of life.
My seventh grade teacher, Mr Macken, tried to insult me by saying small things amuse small minds (also bulied me in other ways). And here we are, where a quarter of the world's GDP comes from quantum mechanics. Computing technology paving the way for careers in software engineering. In your face, Mr Macken.
The problem of funding is that private sector does not care about fundamental research, because its unknown when its gonna be profitable (specially if its behind a patent). That is why basic science relies on government support, since only the society as a whole is able and willing to invest in such a long run.
I feel this. I'm a massive nerd and have a truly insatiable curiosity, and with the internet this has led to me acquiring a huge amount of random bits of knowledge. Sometimes I'll have a lightbulb moment drawing on some little obscure factoid I learned and stashed away in my subconscious _years_ prior. Having a ton of miscellaneous knowledge stashed away is such a boon for coming up with new and unique ideas, its so frustrating that people see aimless miscellaneous research as a waste of time.
Finally someone to pick on politicians in a science education channel 👏🏼 (Picking on Rand Paul makes me giggle. He didn’t even invent the Senate “Golden Fleece Award”)
I've been thinking a lot about education and knowledge possession. Is there such a thing of good enough or the better will always be the merrier? Is there diminishing returns? if so, where? I've started to see a pattern all around me. The more knowledge you have, the more you see the importance of having a lot of knowledge. With only the most niched of knowledge being apparently useful within that niche¹. Which could mean that the more knowledge/better education, the merrier. Which could also mean that there's an inflection point from which you stop thinking "knowing about X is useless! Why are we taught that? Why would I need to learn this?" to "damn, I gotta study/learn a lot more!" Where that point lays? I have no clue. I still have a lot of pondering to do. Specially because, the more knowledge you have, the more surface area you have for creativity and unexpected connections between concepts, pattern recognition, etc. That's why ¹ is not actually that true.
When you focus purely on applied research, you are stuck in finding the best permutation of what we already know. There is little scope to explore beyond what has already been discovered. As most of the world has already been explored, a small group of scientists sitting in a university laboratory cannot find something significant without financial support from the government or some private enterprise. Here comes the bureaucracy and all the debates of basic science and applied science.
Thank you so much for this video. I have learned about those two animals in the past. No relation and I would never guess if they are about to save my life and I'll be able to see my family for just a little bit longer. God bless, science
Knowledge has this thing called serendipity, it becomes useful in unintented ways. Steve Job attended caligraphy classes and today we have myriad of fonts to choose from. No knowledge is wasted
Remember when a US representative complained about fruit fly research as a way to say science shouldn't be funded by the government (unless an average American can see its use right now)?
And he was right, the FDA itself has announced that 96% of animal studies end up being absolutely irrelevant to humans. There should be no animal research at all. It is a giant waste of money.
The protestant religion is hell bent on stamping out naturally occurring curiosity in people. Possibly because they realise that knowledge is the enemy of blind faith.
I'm Type 2 diabetic, and if it weren't for Ozempic, I wouldn't be in nearly as good a shape today as I am. I'm not a pill guy (seriously, I physically struggle in taking them), so I knew I wanted nothing to do with drugs like Metformin. But with one weekly prick (which I can't even feel most of the time), I'm able to get a handle on my disease. I only wish doctors and pharmacies were more discerning in handing Ozempic out to those who are not diagnosed Type 2 diabetic, as this sometimes causes shortages that can affect those of us who are T2D and rely on the medication (my pharmacy told me they don't fill Ozempic prescriptions if the patient doesn't have a documented T2D diagnosis; in those cases, they try another option, like Wegovy). I also wonder, long term, about the effects of a non-diabetic person taking medication specifically formulated and approved for the treatment of diabetes. I would hope research is ongoing on that front, given how GLP-1s have *exploded* in popularity of late.
Knowledge is useless until it's not. People have asked me why I know so many "silly little things", and it's because they come in use in ways that I couldn't have possibly imagined. You can't know what you don't know.
I always used to think these science videos that I spent most of my time on are useless I should be watching things that are useful for me in personal life that led me to watch most useless videos and reels, thanks to this video it gives me a new perspective.
The Global Positioning System could probably have been developed without Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, but being able to calculate the required adjustment of the atomic clocks on the satellites must surely have been simpler than adding an empirical adjustment after discovering that the atomic clocks were drifting - perhaps after a lot of vain attempts to understand how the clocks were being damaged during launch.
The history of the light bulb is both older & stranger than what we learned as children. The first recorded creation & use of a light bulb was in the 1680s by a person named Volta. Then around 60 to 70 years later, French & then British scientists tried connecting several light bulbs with batteries to light rooms. Their results were spectacular, literally turning night into day. The concept was great but the available technology was not yet good enough. It took another 130 or so years for advances in the science of electricity to make the use of light bulbs practical. Edison took a 200 year old proof of concept into a practical usable product.
At the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, there used to be an organization called the Center for Research on the Utilization of Scientific Knowledge, which wrestled with the issue of why it took so long for "pure" discoveries to beat fruit. Alas, it folded in 1985.
Applied science is like using a detector only for Sn in an area including Fe, Au & U; you find only what you think to look for. Pure science is a fine net that catches it all... eventually. Fast limited results vs slowly more applications, special vs broad focus -- both have uses & costs, latter including waiting for results past a single lifespan.
So nobody could predict that studying an organ whose main function is to regulate blood sugar and plays a huge role in our digestive system could help develop drugs that affect blood sugar and metabolism.
This video is the best advertisement for the use of LQMs in AI. Imagine how fast we could discover drugs and other technologies if we could aggregate/analyze the quantitative data from all these sources.
It all goes back to Isaac Asimov's famous words "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'"
Truly Shakespeare.
Because human beings are a short-sighted, parasitic species to the planet and its' other species.
I think it was Ricky Gervais who said something along the lines of "its our responsibility to kill ourselves for the benefit of everything else on the planet"
Like almost everything Aasimov said and wrote, it looks very smart, but it's incredibly stupid.
Eureka is what happens once we figure out the explanation for That's funny.
@@Ezullof You didn't get the point, what matter is not the answer but the question and the act of asking the right question.
@@Ezullof thank you for your comment about how stupid azimov is. It seems that you're super smart. He wrote 200 books. Please share with us the names of some of the books that you wrote so we can learn and become just as smart as you are. Thank you.
What drives me up the wall is we choose to give scientists very little funding yet their discoveries directly improve everyone's lives. It's like humanity doesn't want to advance to a better world.
Its infuriating indeed
It's all the money game. Our society isn't for making the world a better place it's for increasing profit and those rarely go hand in hand
Yet people run to donate money to their preferred religion, content creator or politician.
Can we tell DOGE 😭 I want to keep working with NASA
Well it is not humanity, it is the rich that control that and the idiots only care about money, progress does not matter at all
Hey, thank you for this video. I'm a high school biology teacher and the last few years have been a struggle to convince students knowledge for the sake of knowledge is valuable. This gives me a real world example of the power of curiosity. Thank you
As a high school geometry teacher, I agree. My least favorite question is "When am I ever going to use this?" Even if I give them a concrete example of it being used in the real world, the response to that is, "Well I'm not going to do that when I get older."
I once read a response to this question that went something like “High school math is ‘useless’ the same way lifting dumbbells is ‘useless.’ While lifting weights serves no direct purpose, it’s good exercise that can help you in real life, like carry groceries or move a couch. Math is like weightlifting for your brain, and doing it helps you in problem solving.”
With the current cultural environment, things are likely to get worse. Many students are likely to come to class with preconceived notions about certain issues, that may be at odds with objective reality. A simple statement about the ways things are, may have unintended consequences. A book that I think may be helpful for teachers these days is titled " How Minds Change" by David McRaney. It explores various methods of helping others to reach better conclusions in a non-confrontational manner
But if you go back and listen to these examples, you'll notice that the people doing the work of discovering things are rarely the ones who get any value out of it. Scientists rarely get rich off the science. Investors do. So what any reasonably intelligent student is going to hear is "if you work hard at science, you can make somebody else rich". That's not the motivation you're reaching for.
@jursamaj Only if getting rich is your endgame, most people don't want Anna get rich, they wanna get well off, but not have to deal with the stress that come witg big money, and some people aren't even motivated by money at all. An extreme case is Perelman, a Fields Medalist and Milenium prize winner, lives basically as a very poor people, becauae he refus d to receive the prizes he won. When asked why, he stated that at that moment he knew more about how the universe work than anyone else in the world, and what was money compared to the thrill that gave him.
"Science is like sex. It MAY have a productive output. But that is not why we do it." - Richard Feynman
🤣
Don't get me wrong, I like Feynman but "we" do both for multiple reasons. Including "productive" output.
@@Rjsjrjsjrjsj Hence the capitalised MAY.
And considering that Feynman was quite the womanizer and fan of strip clubs, he would be the perfect authority to make the comparison
I love this !!
@@kellydalstok8900 I see you're reading comprehension is poor. Let me help. The relevant sentence is "But that's NOT why we do it."
Understand?
I love how science can be picked up where it was left off and then continue to improve and get better from there.
Standing on the shoulders of giants!
This is also why it's important for the results of research to be as accessible as possible. The easier seemingly-useless information is to find, the more likely somebody will stumble upon that information and use it to save lives.
Saying that applied research is the only thing that matters is like saying that harvest is the only useful farming activity.
Very amazing metaphor. I will definitely use it when i go to interview in university to study engineering.
PSA:
If you ever come across a Gila nonster in the AZ desert, don't get close to them.
1. It's illegal to disturb/capture/poach them.
2. They're very fast when they need to be and they have a venom that likely won't delete you, but depending on how much venom they deliver, you'll likely be wishing you were deleted.
Imma do it
And their venom is in the teeth at the *back* of their jaw. They get it into you by GNAWING it into you. Not only will you be poisoned but you're going to be actively chewed on by an angry lizard while it happens.
I had a friend get bit once, he won't go anywhere near them now. Not even at the zoo lol
It feels like your blood was replaced with lava, so I'm told. And the worst dry mouth ever.
Also, don't kiss them. I think I remember advice from the national park service about this.
Mathematics is probably another really good example of the application of "useless" knowledge. Because mathematicians have already found ways to approximate polynomial roots, break up functions into component sinusoids, and use imaginary numbers (for example), we have very convenient ways to compute things that the original discoverers would have never even thought would be an application.
Nobody had any use for lasers when they were invented at all.. just a few years later, lasers are synonymous with 'science' !
They ended up in everything from range finding to audio playback and even cooling down atoms to near absolute zero. What a game changer!
The statement 'what's the point of this?' should never be used around scientists doing research, you just never know...
Same with atom smashers. Critics ask why billions need to be spent on ever larger particle accelerators. But, knowing how the universe works could lead to absolutely anything.. if we got a final complete standard model and equation to describe how everything works, surely we could invent anything we wanted. Room temperature superconductors are the next holy grail breakthrough in science. It would transform our whole world overnight. No waste electricity, any speed CPUs not limited by heat, it could slow global warming enough for us to survive if we're saving 40% of all electricity transferred over power lines
Agree! Examples abound, such as in data encryption. Pure number theory discoveries of Euclid and Euler and Fermat among others from centuries ago are now absolutely critical in online banking and commerce and communication. Their discoveries are allowing us to watch this video!
but i wouldnt call mathematics useless.
@@56jkloveyou wouldnt but many would and that’s the problem
@qwerty_and_azerty yeah. What we call useless can be objective and subjective. It depends on what is at hand. I've had this discussion before. Knowing just to know can be pointless. Matter of fact this is just my opinion. All knowledge we attain or seek in this world, is pointless. Since we all die and we can't take it with us after we die. But in the meantime in this world. I think there is knowledge that is more important or crucial then others. I wouldn't call knowing about sports is the same as knowing how light and Electromagnetism. I agree that we live in a world where people don't care about all fields and aspects of science and that includes math. Why do u think that is?
I hate that the sake of knowledge for knowledge's sake is so hard to fund. My interests lie in the biology of insects, but I don't really care about the ones that are attacking crops or spreading disease. I want to know about the underdogs, the ones doing their work in the background that we'll never know about because they "don't matter." Funding is rarely put towards researching groups that don't have a direct impact on industry or health...
You could collect insects. I found out recently that most of the species that aren't described and don't even have names are insects. So if you collect and pin them properly you could add to the field. You have to check how to pin and put the info correctly cause if you don't they're useless.
And the 'ones that don't matter' often do. Their impact is often more subtle than the marquee ones but no less important or impactful.
Almost all bugs can or might matter.
@proton8689 I agree wholeheartedly.
insects are sooo frickin cool... personally I want to make robotic insects someday. they are so small and yet are able to work together and create things (especially in eusocial insects as in the case of ants, which are also fricking cool). i am terrified of cockroaches, and most insects that fly, but I have to admit that watching them from a distance is fascinating...
You kinda hit the nail on the head when talking about science back in the day being more like philosophy; in fact prior to the widespread adoption of terms like “science” and “scientist”, around the turn of the century, they were called “natural philosophy” and “natural philosophers” respectively. As was the case in german, only it remains that way to this day: “Naturwissenschaften“, and I swear if I hear even one joke about german words being long I won’t hesitate to take this straight to the Bundesverfassungsgericht!
What are you trying to say with the german term Naturwissenschaften?
It's funny, but you have no cause of action under German law.
krankenhaus
in fact, university degrees, in the sciences, are: BSc (bachelor of science), MSc (master of science), PhD (doctor of philosophy)
@@vulcanfeline that's why I'm wondering. PhD's aren't that common in Germany, the Dr.-degrees are different here. And the term "Naturwissenschaften" is just "natural sciences", like you already mentioned. So if we talk about philosophy or philosophers it's mostly because someone studies or studied philosophy itself.
Small correction:
Gila monsters are one of the few lizards with medically significant venom. Venom in low doses have been found within varius monitor lizard species among others in recent years.
Nope. Only 3 venomous lizards. Mexican beaded lizard. Gala monster. Komodo dragon. Only ones that have actual venom glands.
@@iLLuminatedWithDren No, he is right. Currently we know many more. Example Varanus griseus has medically significant venom.
@@iLLuminatedWithDren While they are not lizards, Garter Snakes were also long thought to be completely non venomous. But they are. A mild neurotoxin that helps to subdue their small prey, but isn't really that dangerous to humans. Point being, sometimes things are indeed venomous even if conventional knowledge says they aren't.
The currency of scientists is knowledge, not money. They're willing to put a lot of time and effort into learning new knowledge, especially in their area of interest. Most of them became research scientists because there was something they wanted to find out, and if they have to do research that doesn't take them in that direction, they will be less than enthusiastic about it.
I just can’n imagine being so incurious about the world that you can look at science only in the light of what its economic benefits are.
@@kellydalstok8900 It's not about economic benefits. Scientific curiosity leads to technological innovation, which leads to disruptive technologies, which threaten the position of the people and companies that are in power. Disruptive technologies rarely benefit the ones who are in control. Consequently, they'll do what they can to make sure things don't change. Incremental improvements that don't really change who benefits are okay, which is why there is a strong push to do research that is predictably productive. The people who run things make choices based on whether it will lead to them staying in charge or not, even if those choices are against the interests of the general public. They control the money that can be used to influence universities, government agencies, and congress to have things go the way they want. The book "Why Nations Fail" has examples of this, and how it affects economies. The book contains highlights of the research the authors did that earned them the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics, and shows the connection between political power and economic power.
Let nerds be nerds. Let the curious be curious. I remember one of the emeritus professors from Nottingham talking about how nobody thought the beginnings of MRI research were ever going to go anywhere... and now we all treat MRIs as a (very expensive) normal thing.
The problem with this is that Germany and Japan had nerds with no oversight in WW2. Where do you draw the line?
@@NI5M0 With ethical review boards. Nobody said no oversight, just ease up on the profit requirement.
I agree, as long as they don't use up my money in form of tax money.
@arifbagusprakoso2308 But you are willing to benefit from the discoveries they make and the technologies derived from them. You want the benefits but don't want to pay for it.
@@NI5M0 explain how 1930-40's Axis "nerds" are responsible for MRI technology. Citations please. Can you?
I have been telling my students for years to just learn because you never know when it will become useful. Thanks for making this video.
This is something I have been thinking about for a long time, research should be made for the sake of knowledge itself as you can never know what possible applications we could find in the future for things that seem useless today
Beautiful video btw, it really brought a smile to my face
11:30 politicians should be fired when they say stuff like that.
some old fool once wasted his entire life studying lines, the stars and mathematics
he had no idea he'd basically found our sciences
you never know what you'll get
Yeah, but Kentucky.
Ya, politicians should, but their entire platform is to run on misinformation because it takes seconds to make up nonsense but hours to disprove it per person. The average person is unwilling to do deeper research and will take their words at face value no matter how wrong.
Well, if you consider the opportunity cost, 700k can be used to solve many many many society problems.
The only people who can fire politicians are voters, and voters have been convinced they can feel smart by opposing "big government".
Anyone who thinks feeding cocaine to quail birds has any merit should be arrested for animal abuse and charged with drug trafficking.
Joe is right: it may not be immediately obvious that knowledge gained today will be useful tomorrow.
But I am living proof of it (in the workforce): the skills I gained from cold-calling and door-knocking in past sales jobs now help me as volunteer recruiter at a nonprofit to network with others and build relationships. I would never have thought these worlds would collide, yet here we are.
Thank you for your work. I feel the same way. We can do so much good in the world.
@@jillcrowe2626You as well!
About 10 years ago, a professor in my college class mentioned an anegdote about a certain topic that we were covering. This year, i encountered a situation at my job where this information was actually useful and helped us to solve a problem.
All knowledge could one day be helpful, and your brain will pull it deep feom your memory when you encounter a similar situation
I once visited the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Mass. and was told that of the pupils they accepted every year, based on the project research they were proposing, they always accepted one that had a crazy project that nobody ever believed in, the reason being that they usually ended up learning an incredibly lot from researching the projects that were never going to succeed. The funny thing is that now and again the crazy projects actually pan out.
its funny you made this video, the other day my now ex-friend was saying that me learning physics and chemistry was stupid and that i would never use it and that i was wasting my time. I highly disagreed.
0:43 thats a news to me , government gives money for science
Yeah! CDC, FDA, NIH to name a few places 🙂
Yep, and after your taxes go toward funding, say, a new medicine, companies patent it so no one else can make it, and sell what your tax dollars paid to invent back to you for a profit.
I know it's sarcasm, but government research is responsible for the internet and GPS.
Edit to add: courtesy of our ridiculous military budget, too. Create a perceived military use for something, and you might get space race levels of funding.
When superconductivity was discovered, the scientists who first got that working thought that it was a funny quirk of quantum physics but would never be useful.
Now every hospital has an MRI machine. The magnet in an MRI depends on superconductivity for its strength.
It usually takes decades for a scientist to win a Nobel Prize for a discovery. Its value is only understood much later.
Hey parents and teachers! If your child/student asks you a question, answer it, no matter how unimportant it may seem to you! Nurture their curiosity and confidence to ask questions.
The later in life they get, the harder it will be to start doing this. Don't expect other adults in their life to do it for you! A curious child grows into an intelligent adult. Don't stunt them!
Edit, for clarification:
If you don't know the answer, it's ok to admit that you don't know! Teach them how to research things on the internet. It will save you a lot of time if they already know how to read and type!
Thank you, Anglerfish and Gila Monsters! I am slowly thinning out. 🎉
I am far from a scientist, but I like to watch things that can teach me something (which is why I subscribe to this channel). As such, I’ve collected a lot of useless knowledge over the years. I know a little about a lot of things. I’ve found that to be super useful because it has helped me to have at least semi-informed responses to a LOT of different, unusual scenarios in my life. It’s kind of like knowing how to perform CPR. Most people will never need to perform CPR on someone else, so it could be seen as useless knowledge for the vast majority of people, but if you do end up in a scenario where someone needs CPR, that bit of useless knowledge can be literally life-saving.
Excellent perspective! I remember when I was writing My Capstone paper to conclude undergrads about having these discussions with my mentor and trying to make the point that size that is not applied science is not useful. now that has been 5 years since I graduated and I see tremendous value in science that has apparently no application in the short term
This is my favorite episode you’ve made so far. Bravo!!
It always concerns me how little lawmakers and policy-makers value science. The classic example is how much NASA spends each year, and yet few actually are aware of how much R&D in this field has had direct benefits to us all.
You could replace "science" with "knowledge" and you would be very correct. They don't value the lessons of history or math or the sciences. They have only two priorities (1) Get elected (2) get re-elected
If you haven't seen it, wiki has a great article called NASA spin-offs about all the things NASA has given us. And it's broken down by categories.
Write your congressman
@lordgarion514 I have! I just didn't want to list them all on FB.
0:00 He said " Thank you to delete me" and I got scared
5:54 - Phylogenetically, all snakes are lizards. So there are PLENTY of venomous lizards! (Go argue with Clint's Reptiles about it, if you're into that kinda thing.)
And we're all just fish yadda yadda yadda I know, I know 😂
@@besmart some of the most fun yaddas around!
@@stefansauvageonwhat-a-twis1369 so you are also a fan of Clint's work. Me too, and frankly I would love to see a talk between Joe and Clint .
I just wish people would stop feeding chips to the dinosaurs on the beach.
@besmart and fishes in turn are stardust 😂😂😂
Thank you for making this video, Joe.
Always important to highlight the reason for curiosity-based research & how it fuels humanity (& our economy. The ROI on curiosity turns out to be huge).
Research might sound silly until it suddenly isn’t any more.
One day my extremely obscure niche obsession is gonna change the world
Small correction: Gila monster is *not* only venomous lizard. There are several others in genera varanus, heloderma, iguana and lepidophyma.
Komodo Dragons too.
@@luddity Yes, their saliva was only recently recognized as containing a venom which inhibits clotting and tends to induce shock. This combined with bacteria in their mouths makes it more likely that the wounds they inflict will become infected and eventually kill their prey, allowing the dragons to feed without having to fight. They're very patient hunters.
@@luddity They belong to genus varanus, which I already mentioned. The genus has other venomous lizards as well, not just Komodo Dragons.
The pie chart at 1:17 adds up to 100%, so does that mean nobody in the US is underweight anymore?
We're so overweight, the underweights are a rounding error.😂
They accidentally made "other" to "normal weight range", when 1.6% should be "underweight", leaving 25.3% as "normal"
Thin people aren't ugly so they're not important to acknowledge
Thanks!
The more diverse knowledge you have, the more creative you can be with your outlook, in thinking critically to solve problems or invent solutions. Many things humans face are complex and require someone to make associations across multiple variables. Accumulating data and having diverse knowledge is priceless!
I've always loved to learn just for the sake of learning.
There is no useless knowledge, some knowledge is just more or less useful in certain situations.
but that's what we are, the learning animal. We don't have big claws, big teeth, or horns.
We control our environment and our world because we learn.
We are data machines. We learn and then teach each other what we've learned and overtime that knowledge becomes more and more useful.
Your videos are always awesome, I wish they got the recognition they deserved.
Your content is cherished and greatly appreciated ❤
I remember "seeking knowledge for the sake of knowledge" was a huge topic in my uni "Philosophy in STEM" course
The thing is that for every groundbreaking invention/theory, you'll end up having a thousand utterly moronic ideas.
I love this kind of content.
every piece of knowledge is useful, we just haven't find a use for some of those yet
Hey Joe! Great work! Thanks to you, we "smart people" are being nourished with knowledge and wisdom
I loved this video!!! I feel so encouraged:))
I’ve studied perspective drawing and have found some small but exciting evidence for polynomial perspective. Pure research if you will and I can’t wait for someone to find a way to apply it beyond just art!
yes, yes, yes!! i'm an armchair "expert" in just about anything my mind has in mind at any given moment and am currently publishing my 11th collection of poetry, while also working on AI as well as the concept and math of an astrophysics theory. just goes to show, i suppose, what it just goes to show! ;) PS - i was in the process of writing a comment on art here only moments before your post!
I literally spend my life learning, this is because once your dead that information cannot be destroyed so therefore the more you learn then the more of you will be left once all your physical matter decays and turns to dust!
This is my favorite video of yours yours and I like all of them. The curious ones of us with no profit motive have made the most profit for capitalists. Funny huh?
Yet funding is tough for the curious. If govt or capitalists can't see profits within 5 years, it's a no-go. Yet, this video shows exactly how much profit and new industries arise from one person asking a question.
I wish we didn't even have to make a financial case for curiosity but here we are. Unlease the curious and everyone's lives improve!
Great video you changed the way I was thinking about non purpose driven research.
As a teacher, this is so true. I'd even argue this extends to real life. Seemingly 'useless' things that I've learned in school that I hated, somehow came around and helped me in completely different areas of life.
Thank you for your kind demeanor and articulate videos
My seventh grade teacher, Mr Macken, tried to insult me by saying small things amuse small minds (also bulied me in other ways). And here we are, where a quarter of the world's GDP comes from quantum mechanics. Computing technology paving the way for careers in software engineering.
In your face, Mr Macken.
The problem of funding is that private sector does not care about fundamental research, because its unknown when its gonna be profitable (specially if its behind a patent). That is why basic science relies on government support, since only the society as a whole is able and willing to invest in such a long run.
i find interconnectivity of everything lives in those useless facts.
I feel this. I'm a massive nerd and have a truly insatiable curiosity, and with the internet this has led to me acquiring a huge amount of random bits of knowledge. Sometimes I'll have a lightbulb moment drawing on some little obscure factoid I learned and stashed away in my subconscious _years_ prior. Having a ton of miscellaneous knowledge stashed away is such a boon for coming up with new and unique ideas, its so frustrating that people see aimless miscellaneous research as a waste of time.
Finally someone to pick on politicians in a science education channel 👏🏼 (Picking on Rand Paul makes me giggle. He didn’t even invent the Senate “Golden Fleece Award”)
Superb presentation! A critically important argument on behalf of pure research.
Just wanted to say thank you to John Eng, for seeing what others didn’t.
I've been thinking a lot about education and knowledge possession. Is there such a thing of good enough or the better will always be the merrier? Is there diminishing returns? if so, where?
I've started to see a pattern all around me. The more knowledge you have, the more you see the importance of having a lot of knowledge. With only the most niched of knowledge being apparently useful within that niche¹. Which could mean that the more knowledge/better education, the merrier. Which could also mean that there's an inflection point from which you stop thinking "knowing about X is useless! Why are we taught that? Why would I need to learn this?" to "damn, I gotta study/learn a lot more!" Where that point lays? I have no clue. I still have a lot of pondering to do.
Specially because, the more knowledge you have, the more surface area you have for creativity and unexpected connections between concepts, pattern recognition, etc. That's why ¹ is not actually that true.
When you focus purely on applied research, you are stuck in finding the best permutation of what we already know. There is little scope to explore beyond what has already been discovered. As most of the world has already been explored, a small group of scientists sitting in a university laboratory cannot find something significant without financial support from the government or some private enterprise. Here comes the bureaucracy and all the debates of basic science and applied science.
Thank you for sharing this wisdom, again...!
Thank you so much for this video. I have learned about those two animals in the past. No relation and I would never guess if they are about to save my life and I'll be able to see my family for just a little bit longer. God bless, science
2:25 Dr. Sabine would be furious at the recommendation of this video 🤭
Why?
@isyodoesthings Cause she argued for the exact opposite point recently 😅
8:21 crickets - that’s golden!
Knowledge has this thing called serendipity, it becomes useful in unintented ways. Steve Job attended caligraphy classes and today we have myriad of fonts to choose from. No knowledge is wasted
Remember when a US representative complained about fruit fly research as a way to say science shouldn't be funded by the government (unless an average American can see its use right now)?
Yes, I expect that at some point someone will discover why wasps are so hard to get drunk.
Yeah, well, those people are taking power everywhere.
And he was right, the FDA itself has announced that 96% of animal studies end up being absolutely irrelevant to humans. There should be no animal research at all. It is a giant waste of money.
The protestant religion is hell bent on stamping out naturally occurring curiosity in people. Possibly because they realise that knowledge is the enemy of blind faith.
Science isn't for discovery anymore - it's for profit! Welcome to capitalism!
the algorithm has brought a wonderful video to my attention this day. thank you sire, for this video. it was pure awesome.
I'm Type 2 diabetic, and if it weren't for Ozempic, I wouldn't be in nearly as good a shape today as I am. I'm not a pill guy (seriously, I physically struggle in taking them), so I knew I wanted nothing to do with drugs like Metformin. But with one weekly prick (which I can't even feel most of the time), I'm able to get a handle on my disease. I only wish doctors and pharmacies were more discerning in handing Ozempic out to those who are not diagnosed Type 2 diabetic, as this sometimes causes shortages that can affect those of us who are T2D and rely on the medication (my pharmacy told me they don't fill Ozempic prescriptions if the patient doesn't have a documented T2D diagnosis; in those cases, they try another option, like Wegovy). I also wonder, long term, about the effects of a non-diabetic person taking medication specifically formulated and approved for the treatment of diabetes. I would hope research is ongoing on that front, given how GLP-1s have *exploded* in popularity of late.
Thank you!
About Einstein: GPS wouldn't work without him.
It would , but perhaps would be less accurate and less synchronized .
Love your work
Got goosebumps while watching the video
Felt so proud of science and being in the medical profession, i could relate this completely
IKR! In the medical profession most people think that only clinical skills are relevant and the theory isn't and this makes me so upset
This was a most excellent overview, thank you.
What an excellent video, Joe. with a powerful message
Excellent storytelling, thank you
Knowledge is useless until it's not. People have asked me why I know so many "silly little things", and it's because they come in use in ways that I couldn't have possibly imagined. You can't know what you don't know.
Great video, it was nothing short of refreshing and intriguing.
I always used to think these science videos that I spent most of my time on are useless I should be watching things that are useful for me in personal life that led me to watch most useless videos and reels, thanks to this video it gives me a new perspective.
The Global Positioning System could probably have been developed without Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, but being able to calculate the required adjustment of the atomic clocks on the satellites must surely have been simpler than adding an empirical adjustment after discovering that the atomic clocks were drifting - perhaps after a lot of vain attempts to understand how the clocks were being damaged during launch.
The history of the light bulb is both older & stranger than what we learned as children. The first recorded creation & use of a light bulb was in the 1680s by a person named Volta. Then around 60 to 70 years later, French & then British scientists tried connecting several light bulbs with batteries to light rooms. Their results were spectacular, literally turning night into day. The concept was great but the available technology was not yet good enough. It took another 130 or so years for advances in the science of electricity to make the use of light bulbs practical. Edison took a 200 year old proof of concept into a practical usable product.
I'm so frustrated because I gained weight because of major digestive issues. Because of those digestive issues, I'm not able to use glucagon drugs.
That really sucks man, I hope your discomfort/pain eases
GLP1s aren't the only incretin mimetics, most aren't on the market yet, but they're coming.
@@punkdigerati that's good to know! Hopefully they have fewer side effects.
At the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, there used to be an organization called the Center for Research on the Utilization of Scientific Knowledge, which wrestled with the issue of why it took so long for "pure" discoveries to beat fruit. Alas, it folded in 1985.
I like the slow delivery of this video
Applied science is like using a detector only for Sn in an area including Fe, Au & U; you find only what you think to look for. Pure science is a fine net that catches it all... eventually. Fast limited results vs slowly more applications, special vs broad focus -- both have uses & costs, latter including waiting for results past a single lifespan.
What a wonderful video- thank you. Good message too!
So nobody could predict that studying an organ whose main function is to regulate blood sugar and plays a huge role in our digestive system could help develop drugs that affect blood sugar and metabolism.
Gila monster costumes + spit, that sounds nice for Halloween or some other kind of party.
Incredible stories 😊
"that might lead to an answer we don't even have the question for yet"
Ah, yes. 42.
I'm glad of this information. Thanks 👍🏻
I had to watch this twice. Absolutely love the subject matter.
This was a particularly good video
Brand new sentence:
“People are becoming anorexic because of lizard spit, and that’s *almost* a good thing.”
11:39 It is easy to predict the uselessness of how parrots attract their mates.
amazing... thanks for making this!
Very interesting and fun as usual, thank you 🙏!!!!!❤
It's not weird. It's fascinating.
As someone who is trying to become a scientist this made my day and helped thanks joe
Quoting Yoda:
"There is no 'try' - there is only do"
This video is the best advertisement for the use of LQMs in AI. Imagine how fast we could discover drugs and other technologies if we could aggregate/analyze the quantitative data from all these sources.
You had me at "a guy squirting lizard venom on a rodent pancreas".