The Uncertainty of Science

           Published in 1998, Richard Feynman, a physicist, professor, and best-selling author, curated a nonfiction book titled *The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist*. This book is based on a series of three public lectures that Feynman gave at the University of Washington in 1963. Specifically, in one of his essays titled "The Uncertainty of Science," Feynman establishes ethos, utilizes repetition, and presents rhetorical questions to explore the topic of science and communicate its relation to the greater world.

 

           Science embodies the foundation of all the living processes and organisms on our earth. Yet, as working humans who are constantly occupied, we may sometimes forget about the importance of science and how different our world would be without it. In Feynman's essay, he encourages us to appreciate and ponder science and its greater impact on earth. Feynman begins his essay by using the repetition of "you" throughout, directly addressing the audience and increasing the impact his words will have on them. He arranges the sentences directly after one another, starting with "you" and stating how we must understand and appreciate the great adventure of our time to understand science and its relations, as well as how we do not live in our time unless we understand that science is a wild, exciting, and tremendous adventure. By directly addressing the audience, coupled with his ethos as a professor and author, Feynman encourages the readers to ponder his statement and rethink their stance towards science and its relations to the greater world. Further, he asks a rhetorical question towards the end of his essay, questioning the audience whether they can appreciate or fit into the ideas of what our world will mean without living things on it. Here, Feynman again encourages the audience to ponder the relations of science to the rest of the world, as they are directly now thinking to themselves through this rhetorical question. Therefore, the more we think and ponder, the audience will have the ability to develop a greater appreciation and novel perspective towards science, uncovering its major role on earth.

 

           Besides encouraging a new perspective and appreciation towards science among the audience, Feynman also emphasizes the importance of science and how science cradles the living organisms and functions on Earth. Firstly, he does this through the repetition of "this is." He states that the contents of science are fields, gold, and excitement. Through this repetition, he bombards the audience with the benefits of the contents of science, thus emphasizing their importance. Further, he then uses imagery and the process of Earth spinning to emphasize the relationship science has. Feynman encourages us to imagine, directing our attention when he asks the audience to "look at the way we do it today," and presents a rhetorical question on whether the idea is dull. He states that with our earth spinning as a ball, gravitational force holds us up, as well as the sun that keeps us running. Here, he attempts to evoke imagery within the audience, encouraging them to imagine this process and identify the relations science has with the rest of the world. To further emphasize the importance of science, Feynman introduces examples regarding actual organisms such as bacteria, chlorophyll, and metals to showcase their interactions with the world and how they are beneficial. This aids the audience in questioning and pondering about science and its relations to the earth, as they use these familiar topics to make sense of Feynman's essay. With the use of examples, Feynman is able to emphasize the importance of science and its relations to the greater world by providing logical examples of the processes that actually happen on earth.